BR  121  .M35  1914 

Mains,  George  Preston,  1844- 

1930. 
Christianity  and  the  new  age 


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CHRISTIANITY  AND 

THE  NEW  AGE 


BY  V 

GEORGE  PRESTON  MAINS 


.■■ 


A 


NOV  30  19 


THE    METHODIST    BOOK    CONCERN 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,    1914,   by 
GEORC;E    p.    MAINS 


TO  MY  WIFE,  WHOSE  ARTISTIC  TASTE  LENDS 
CHARM  TO  MY  HOME;  WHOSE  HABITUAL 
CHEERFULNESS  MAKES  MY  HOME  LIFE  RADI- 
ANT; AND  WHOSE  WOMANLY  LOVE  AND 
LOYALTY  HEARTEN  ME  FOR  ALL  TOILS: 
THIS  VOLUME   IS   AFFECTIONATELY   INSCRIBED 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface ix 

PART  FIRST 
The  Book's  Portal 
I.  The  Incomprehensible  Christ 5 

PART  SECOND 
Ideal  Versus  Achievement 
II.  The  Church:  The  Church  Urban  and  Rural 23 

III.  The  Church  and  the  Poor 43 

PART  THIRD 
Factors  of  Limitation 

IV.  Rational  Readjustments 57 

V.  Biblical  Criticism 81 

VI.  Secularized  Education 101 

VII.  Educated  Leadership 1 19 

VIII.  Plutocracy 135 

IX.  Socialism 157 

PART  FOURTH 
Factors  Prophetic 

X.  Christianity's  Leavening  Life 183 

XL  Christian  Missions 211 

XII.  The  Inworking  God 229 

XIII.  The  Divineness  of  Man 245 

XIV.  Modern  Prophets 265 

XV.  Prophetic  Vistas 287 

XVI.  The  Abiding  Church 325 

Bibliography 345 


PREFACE 

While  I  could  covet  for  this  book  a  wide  welcome, 
an  interdenominational  welcome,  from  both  the  min- 
istry and  the  laity,  in  its  preparation  I  have  had  not 
less  in  mind  the  lay  than  the  ministerial  reader.  I  have 
been  led,  sanely  and  constructively  I  hope,  to  discuss 
many  phases  of  modern  fact  and  thought,  and  in  my 
various  processes  I  think  it  could  be  only  helpful  if  a 
large  constituency  of  thinking  laymen  were  to  keep 
me  company.  I  do  not  for  a  moment  assume  that  all 
such  readers  would  give  consent  to  all  the  positions 
of  the  book,  but  it  is  my  confidence  that  all  would  re- 
ceive some  benefit;  and  it  might  not  be  of  least  value 
that  the  attention  of  readers  should  be  newly  challenged 
at  the  very  points,  if  any,  which  seem  to  awaken  dissent. 

The  theme  of  this  volume  is — the  Church?  Yes;  but 
something  far  other  and  more.  The  central  thought 
around  which  the  entire  discussion  revolves  is — the 
world-kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  have  elected  for  the 
title  of  the  book,  as  covering  perhaps  its  conception 
more  perfectly  than  any  other  phrasing,  this — Chris- 
tianity and  the  New  Age. 

This  title  is  exceedingly  broad — indeed,  "broader  than 
the  measure  of  man's  mind."  Any  discussion  of  such 
a  subject  must  prove  necessarily  and  inevitably  frag- 
mentary— how  fragmentary  can  be  appreciated  by 
none  so  keenly  as  by  those  who  have  seriously  attempted 


%  PREFACE 

idy  of  Christianity  in  its  relations  to  present  world- 
movements. 

One  who  has  made  a  tour  of  the  world  has  seen  much. 
1  [e  has  felt  the  swell  of  measureless  seas,  has  had  a  vision 
of  vast  landscapes,  has  looked  upon  mighty  mountains 
lakes,  and  rivers;  he  has  visited  the  chief  capitals,  has 
looked  upon  the  most  famed  creations  of  genius;  he 
has  been  indescribably  impressed  with  the  universality 
of  man's  religiousness  as  witnessed  by  the  many  faiths, 
both  ancient  and  those  of  more  recent  origin,  which 
are  diversely  represented  in  the  civilizations;  he  has 
observed  with  greatest  interest  the  diverse  languages, 
literatures,  art,  social  customs,  laws,  governments  va- 
riously characteristic  of  all  the  human  world. 

But  no  one  realizes  better  than  this  discerning  traveler 
that  vast  and  intrinsically  interesting  world-territories 
still  lie  outside  the  range  of  his  personal  observation 
and  exploration.  As  I  lay  down  my  pen  with  the  con- 
cluding chapters  of  this  book,  I  have  a  not  dissimilar 
feeling.  I  have  attempted  to  touch,  helpfully  as  I  could 
devoutly  hope,  a  few  great  features  of  what  is  really 
an  cxhaustless  theme. 

My  studies  as  herein  set  forth  have  proven  to  me 
most  richly  rewarding.  They  have  brought  to  me  an 
expanding  vision,  an  inspirational  quickening  of  faith, 
great  confirmation  of  fundamental  Christian  conviction, 
a  magnified  confidence  and  assurance  that  Christianity 
is  the  one  supreme  and  all-prophetic  factor  of  human 
history. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  be  pessimistic  with  reference 
to  the  final  outcome  of  Christianity. 


PREFACE  xi 

God's  in  his  heaven: 
All's  right  with  the  world. 

If  this  little  couplet  of  Browning,  so  far  as  the  present 
is  concerned,  is  not  real  history,  it  is  a  sure  prophecy 
of  what  is  to  be. 

The  several  chapters  of  this  book,  while  prepared 
with  reference  to  due  sequence  of  thought,  may,  for 
the  most  numbers,  each  be  read  as  a  distinct  essay 
upon  the  subject  which  it  discusses.  The  sources  of 
suggestion  from  which  this  volume  has  come  are  many. 
Very  much  of  the  substance  has  been  for  so  long  my 
own  intellectual  property,  as  to  make  it  impossible 
for  me  to  indicate  sources.  At  the  close  of  the  volume 
will  be  found  a  chapter  of  Bibliography.  All  works 
referred  to  in  this  list  have  been  more  or  less  consulted 
in  my  preparation. 

I  am  especially  indebted  to  Dr.  David  G.  Downey, 
official  Book  Editor,  and  to  Dr.  Henry  C.  Jennings, 
General  Publishing  Agent,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  for  their  critical  reading  of  the  manuscript, 
and  for  valuable  suggestions  as  to  its  final  form. 

In  committing  this  work  to  the  public,  if  I  may  ever 
know  that  to  its  readers  it  has  brought  a  tithe  of  the 
benefit  with  which  its  preparation  has  enriched  me, 
I  shall  find  reason  in  such  knowledge  for  grateful  satis- 
faction. 

New  York,  August,  19 14. 


PART   FIRST 
THE   BOOKS   PORTAL 


THE  INCOMPREHENSIBLE  CHRIST 


Jesus!  the  name  high  over  all. 

In  hell,  or  earth,  or  sky; 
Angels  and  men  before  it  fall, 

And  devils  fear  and  fly. 

Christus  Redemptor  has,  with  atoning  sacrifice,  brought  forgiveness 
to  the  great  company  of  the  redeemed.  Christus  Consolator  has 
ed  the  tears  of  the  world's  sorrow  and  filled  the  hearts  of  the 
afflicted  and  the  wronged  with  immortal  hope.  Christus  Consummator 
will  establish  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  hearts  of  men  and  transform 
human  society  at  last  into  an  order  of  final  perfection. — David  J. 
Hill,  LL.D. 

Humanity  is  driving  stormily  on  its  perilous  way,  and  no  man  knows 
from  history  or  observation  what  the  end  will  be.  If  we  really  think 
the  subject,  the  only  reassuring  thing  is  the  optimistic  teaching 
of  Jesus  Christ  based  on  his  revelation  of  God.  If  God  indeed  be  such 
as  Jesus  reported,  if  he  be  our  God  and  Father,  if  his  name  is  Love,  if 
he  has  made  man  for  immortal  life  and  blessedness  with  himself,  then, 
of  course,  all  must  be  right  with  the  world,  and  the  end  must  be  divine. 
But  on  any  other  view,  the  only  preservation  against  deep  anxiety,  if 
not  despair,  is  simply  not  to  think.  The  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord 
D  be  trusted  even  when  we  do  not  understand  him;  but 
if  we  seek  to  know  God  apart  from  his  Son,  we  are  at  the  beginning  of 
confusion  and  sorrow. — Borden  P.  Bowne,  LL.D. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  INCOMPREHENSIBLE  CHRIST 

However  inadequately,  or  with  what  failure  of 
directness,  the  engrossing  themes  discussed  in  this  and 
subsequent  chapters  may  be  treated,  I  could  wish  it 
understood  from  the  first  that  this  book  is  written  in 
no  spirit  of  pessimism.  While  seeking  frankly  to  assess 
the  obverse  facts  and  conditions  in  current  Christian 
history,  I  find  neither  in  my  fears  nor  in  the  outlook 
place  for  any  note  of  despair. 

This  world  belongs  to  God,  and  finally  its  last  and 
apparently  most  forbidding  province  will  come  under 
his  scepter.  The  influence  and  power  of  Christianity 
alone  will  bring  to  pass  this  sublime  consummation. 
Christianity,  with  Christ  at  its  center,  its  ever-inspiring 
and  energizing  life,  is  something  immeasurably  larger, 
greater,  and  more  divine  than  the  world  has  yet  come 
to  apprehend.  Its  larger  meaning  and  possibilities  are 
one  thing;  its  various  institutions,  however  time-honored, 
which  have  been  associated  with  its  life,  are  quite  an- 
other thing.  It  is  a  common  habit,  and  in  large  measure 
an  infirmity,  of  the  human  mind  to  lay  vital  stress  upon 
institutions  and  creeds  which  have  attached  them- 
selves as  the  exponents  and  explanation  of  the  great 
movements  of  history.  Thus,  in  the  divinest  of  all 
historic  movements,  Christianity  itself,  there  have  grown 
up    great    institutions,    creeds,    and    usages.    These    in 

5 


6  CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

turn  have  taken  an  enormous  hold  upon  the  imagination, 
faith,  veneration,  and  affection  of  the  believing  Chris- 
tian world.  These  various  minor  factors  have  in  the 
lives  of  very  many  so  come  into  the  foreground  of  their 
thought  as  to  have  a  meaning  well-nigh  synonymous 
with  Christianity  itself.  But  this  view  makes  the 
fatal  mistake  of  putting  form,  the  ecclesiastical  organism, 
in  place  of  the  vitalizing  spirit  of  Christianity  itself. 

All  institutions,  creeds,  and  usages  are  but  vehicles, 
instruments.  Christ  alone  is  the  life  of  his  Church. 
He  alone  is  worthy  to  command  our  worship  and  love. 
Christ  is  the  Son  of  God.  He  is  this  in  the  preeminent 
sense;  in  a  sense  which  is  not  true  of  any  and  all  other 
beings.  He  is  the  one  revealer  of  God  to  man.  He 
is  equally  the  revealer  to  man  of  what  God  would  have 
man  be,  of  wrhat  God  purposes  that  he  shall  be.  Con- 
cerning the  supreme  problems  of  the  redemption  and 
salvation  of  humanity,  problems  with  which  unlimited 
divinity  alone  can  deal,  Christ  furnishes  the  only  solu- 
tion. For  the  mission  of  the  world's  redemption  from 
evil,  for  the  final  bringing  of  man  to  his  divinest  possi- 
bilities, Christ  is  invested  with  all  authority,  having 
at  command  all  the  powers  of  the  moral  universe.  It 
would,  then,  be  treason  to  assume  or  to  fear  that  he 
could  finally  fail  in  his  work.  Institutions,  creeds, 
customs,  may  be  superseded,  but  his  kingdom  shall 
move  on,  waxing  stronger  until  its  final  consummation. 

While  the  name  of  Christ  is  acknowledged  as  the 
greatest  of  names,  there  is  proof  abundant  that  as  yet 
the  world  has  very  little  comprehended  his  greatness. 
He  is  the  one  transcendent  and  indescribable  Personality 


THE  INCOMPREHENSIBLE  CHRIST  7 

of  History.  The  four  literary  fragments1  called  the 
Gospels  are,  as  sources  of  information  concerning  his 
real  character  and  teaching,  of  far  greater  value  than 
all  the  learned  and  critical  lives  of  him  which  have  been 
written  in  recent  times.  But  a  careful  reading  of  the 
Gospels  themselves  will  impress  us  that  their  authors 
in  seeking  to  picture  the  Christ  were  struggling  with 
an  impossible  task.  The  men  originally  companioned 
with  Christ  only  very  imperfectly  understood  him. 
Their  feeling  toward  him  was  one  of  wonder  and  per- 
plexity, mingled  at  times  with  a  sense  of  overwhelming 
admiration  and  love.  In  assessing  this  estimate  allow- 
ance is  to  be  made  for  the  spiritual  illumination  which 
rested  upon  these  men  at  Pentecost  and  afterward. 
But  the  Spirit  in  his  mission  as  inspirer  has  to  reckon 
with  the  limitations  of  human  character.  These  early 
companions  and  chroniclers  of  Christ  when  in  possession 
of  the  largest  measure  of  inspiration  possible  to  them, 
were  still  men  of  marked  limitations.  The  only  rational 
accounting  for  the  matchless  character  glimpsed  to  us 
in  the  four  Gospels  is  that  a  transcendent  Being,  one 
who  had  come  forth  from  God,  and  whose  glory  they 
beheld,  companioned  himself  with  men.  There  was 
that  about  Jesus  Christ  which  was  immeasurably  larger 
and  more  glorious  than  any  who  knew  him  best  were 
able  to  comprehend.  He  was  to  them  inexpressible. 
As  Schweitzer  says,  "They  were  dealing  with  the  Niagara 
force  of  an  indescribable  character." 

Saint   Paul,   some  of  whose  writings  are  the  oldest 


1  "Fragments"  in  the  sense  that  they  record  but  a  mere  fraction  of  the  words  and  deeds 
of  Jesus.     See  John  21.  25. 


8  CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

in  the  New  Testament,  was  a  man  rarely  gifted,  and 
of  deepest  spiritual  insight.  His  own  transformed  life 
was  B  miracle.  His  experience  of  Christ's  revelation 
in  his  life  was  an  event  so  overwhelming  to  his  con- 
ness  that  its  marvel  never  lessened  upon  his  view. 
There  is  no  more  impressive  psychological  chapter  in 
Christian  history  than  that  which  records  the  con- 
version and  the  after  apostolic  life  of  Saul  of  Tarsus. 
No  spiritual  experience  was  ever  more  vivid  than  his. 
No  intellect  more  mighty  than  his  ever  struggled  with 
the  problems  of  the  incarnation.  As  a  witness  to  the 
transforming  power  and  inspiring  hopes  of  Christ's 
gospel,  none  greater  than  Saint  Paul  has  ever  arisen. 
But  as  a  theologian  even  this  greatest  of  the  apostles 
was  never  able  fully  to  emancipate  himself  from  the 
habits  of  his  Jewish  training,  nor  from  the  impressions 
of  his  Roman  citizenship.  Saint  Paul  may  well  hold 
undisputed  the  first  place  among  historic  Christians. 
But  even  he,  when  he  stood  in  the  presence  of  Christ, 
felt  that  he  knew  only  in  part.  To  him  the  very  love 
of  Christ  was  something  passing  knowledge.  In  Christ 
he  felt  that  there  were  heights  and  depths  and 
lengths  and  breadths  which  he  had  never  explored. 
Paul  fairly  burdens  all  language  at  his  command  in 
extolling  Christ's  dominion  on  earth,  in  heaven,  and 
ior  eternity.  His  imagination  was  continually  haunted 
by  qualities  ineffable  and  inexpressible  inhering  in  his 
Lord.  He  says,  "And  without  controversy" — by  com- 
mon consent,  without  debate — it  is  to  be  admitted  by 
all,  and  in  this  he  includes  himself,  that  "great  is  the 
mystery  of  Godliness:  God  was  manifested  in  the  flesh, 


THE  INCOMPREHENSIBLE  CHRIST  9 

justified  in  the  spirit,  seen  of  angels,  preached  unto  the 
Gentiles,  believed  on  in  the  world,  received  up  into 
glory."  Paul,  with  all  his  wealth  of  revelation,  would 
be  the  last  man  to  claim  exhaustive  knowledge  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

In  the  period  of  the  Church  Fathers,  beginning  with 
the  origin  of  the  Apostles'  Creed,  whenever  that  was, 
and  including  Augustine,  a  vastly  exhaustive  study  was 
given  to  the  subject  of  the  Trinity  and  to  the  person 
of  Christ.  Lessing,  the  brilliant  rationalist,  the  man 
whom  Macaulay  declared  to  be  "beyond  dispute  the 
first  critic  in  Europe,"  in  speaking  of  the  patristic  develop- 
ment of  orthodox  Christology,  confessed  that  he  knew 
"nothing  in  the  world  in  which  human  ingenuity  showed 
and  exercised  itself  in  a  greater  manner."  When  the 
Athanasian,  really  the  Augustinian,  creed  reached  sub- 
stantially its  final  form,  three  great  ecumenical  councils 
had  struggled  with  and  pronounced  upon  the  doctrinal 
problems  of  Christ  and  his  relations  to  the  Trinity. 
The  Athanasian  creed,  studied  article  by  article,  and  sen- 
tence by  sentence,  reveals  an  ingenuity  and  penetration 
worthy  of  the  greatest  thought;  and  probably  no  abler 
thought  was  ever  brought  to  bear  upon  any  abstruse  sub- 
ject than  that  which  wrought  in  the  making  of  this  creed. 

Athanasius,  Saint  Paul  excepted,  was  the  ablest  man 
whom  the  Christian  Church  had  produced  up  to  his 
time.  The  creed  bearing  his  name  undoubtedly  re- 
flected his  views  upon  the  great  subject  of  the  Trinity 
and  the  relations  of  Christ  thereto.  For  a  long  time 
it  was  assumed  that  he  was  the  author  of  this  creed. 
But  a  more  critical  study  of  the  history  has  shown  beyond 


IO 


i  HKISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 


doubt  that  in  its  final  shaping  Augustine  had  more  to 
<!«>  than  had  Athanasius. 

Augustine  was  the  greatest  Christian  mind  of  his 
century.  He  was  a  foremost  philosopher.  He  knew 
experimentally  much  about  the  world  on  its  evil  side. 
His  conversion  to  Christianity  seems  little  less  miraculous 
than  that  of  Saint  Paul.  His  essential  greatness  is 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  his  utterances  dominated  the 
theology  of  the  Christian,  especially  the  Western,  Church 
for  twelve  centuries. 

It  is  evident  that  the  historic  creeds  were  born  in  the 
throes  of  great  thought.  It  would  be  unseemly  for 
any  single  mind  to  utter  itself  in  quarrelsome  dissent 
from  pronouncements  which  for  many  ages  have  com- 
manded for  themselves  a  reverent  consensus  of  Christian 
faith.  These  creeds  express  as  perfectly  as  it  is  possible 
for  the  human  intellect  to  do  the  measurable  facts  con- 
cerning the  divine  Trinity,  and  the  status  of  Jesus  Christ 
in  his  relation  thereto.  As  historic  crystallizations  of 
orthodoxy  they  have  doubtless  served  a  great  purpose 
in  preserving  the  fundamentals  of  a  common  Christian 
faith,  and  in  giving  to  the  Church  familiarity  with  noble 
forms  of  reverent  belief. 

But,  when  all  acknowledgment  by  the  Church,  is 
intelligently  made  for  these  monumental  products  of 
the  great  minds  of  its  early  history,  it  still  remains  to 
be  said  that  not  all  the  creeds  combined  have  taken 
the  measurement  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  a  divinity 
a  transcendency,  an  infinite  indefinable  something  in 
his  character  that  forever  refuses  reduction  to  the  meas- 
urements of  human   thought.     Applying   the   words   of 


THE  INCOMPREHENSIBLE  CHRIST         n 

Loofs  to  Christ,  we  may  with  him  say,  "It  is  absolutely 
impossible  for  our  reason  to  comprehend  God:  his 
eternity,  his  creation  and  maintenance  of  all  things, 
his  omnipotence  and  omniscience  are  absolutely  incom- 
prehensible for  us."1 

More  than  eighteen  centuries  lie  between  us  and  the 
New  Testament  writers.  These  centuries  have  made 
great  history.  Christ  is  still  alive.  He  is  now  vastly 
more  alive,  immeasurably  more  regnant  in  human  thought, 
than  in  any  preceding  time.  Within  these  centuries 
civilizations,  religions,  institutions,  philosophies,  systems 
of  learning  have  perished.  Christ  has  survived  them  all. 
Within  these  centuries  new  civilizations,  new  philosophies, 
new  sciences,  new  inventions,  new  learning  have  changed 
the  face  of  the  world,  have  vastly  increased  human 
knowledge,  have  given  new  direction  to  thought  and 
conduct.  Yet  in  all  this  unmeasured  revolution,  in 
all  the  mighty  progress  of  knowledge  and  enlighten- 
ment, Christ  has  received  steady  and  increasing  exalta- 
tion in  the  world's  thought  and  affairs.  There  is  no 
history  parallel  to  this,  none  so  wondrous. 

It  is  worthy  of  special  emphasis  that  within  the  last 
seventy-five  years  the  most  acute  thought  has  been 
focused  upon  Jesus  Christ.  The  keenest,  most  search- 
ing and  relentless  processes  of  analysis  have  been  applied 
to  his  history  and  character.  These  years  have  been 
preeminently  the  period  of  scientific  methods.  In  this 
time  science  has  placed  at  the  command  of  learning 
the  most  effective  appliances  for  the  ascertainment  of 
truth.     It  is  safe  to  say  that  not  a  single  method,  not 

1  Dr.  Friedrich  Loofs,  What  Is  the  Truth  about  Jesus  Christ? 


i  a 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 


a  single  test  which  the  new  learning  has  made  available 
has  been  neglected  in  the  critical  scrutiny  that  has 
been  centered  upon  Jesus  Christ.  No  subject  has 
received  more  intense,  more  capable,  or  more  continuous 
study  than  has  been  given  to  this  supreme  character 
of  the  New  Testament.  If  Lessing  were  living  to-day, 
light,  in  review  of  the  recent  thought  which  has 
1  teen  devoted  to  Jesus,  parallel  his  tribute  to  that  earlier 
period  of  thought,  and  say  again,  "There  is  nothing 
in  the  world  in  which  human  ingenuity  shows  and  ex- 
presses itself  in  a  greater  manner." 

But  if  we  look  at  Christ  to-day,  in  the  present  stage 
i  if  ever-living  discussion  that  centers  about  him — a  dis- 
cussion that  promises  never  to  lessen — we  discover  that 
his  widening  supremacy  over  the  world's  thought  is 
increasingly  acknowledged.  In  the  first  half  of  the 
last  century  Straus  published  his  Life  of  Christ.  It 
came  to  Christian  scholarship  as  a  brilliant  and  stunning 
surprise.  It  was  a  herald  of  consternation  and  fear 
to  the  world  of  Christian  thought.  Christian  scholars 
were  not  prepared  for  the  onslaught,  and  for  a  time 
they  considered  the  phenomenon  with  bated  breath. 
But  Strauss  himself,  a  brilliant  scholar  and  intellectually 
great,  lived  to  a  dreary  and  disappointed  old  age.  And 
when  his  life  was  sere  and  spent  he  himself  uttered  the 
bitter  lamentation  over  his  rationalistic  Life  of  Christ 
that  it  was  a  thing  which  had  "utterly  gone  to  leaves." 

Kenan,  scholarly,  with  great  insight,  brilliantly  rhe- 
torical, wrote  his  Life  of  Christ  with  a  distinct  inten- 
tion to  rob  him  of  divinity.  To  Renan's  credit  it  must 
be  said  that  the  more  deeply  he  studied  the  character 


THE  INCOMPREHENSIBLE  CHRIST         13 

of  his  subject,  the  more  was  he  himself  captivated  by- 
its  ineffable  beauties.  He  pays  eulogies  to  Christ  which 
would  seem  properly  rendered  only  to  divinity.  He 
says:  "He  is  the  common  honor  of  all  who  share  a  com- 
mon humanity.  His  glory  does  not  even  consist  in 
being  relegated  out  of  history;  we  render  him  a  truer 
worship  in  showing  that  all  history  is  incomprehensible 
without  him."  Again  he  says:  "He  founded  that  high 
spiritualism  which  for  centuries  has  rilled  souls  with 
joy  in  the  midst  of  this  vale  of  tears.  .  .  .  Thanks 
to  Jesus,  the  dullest  existence,  that  most  absorbed  by 
sad  or  humiliating  duties,  has  had  its  glimpse  of  heaven. 
In  our  busy  civilizations  the  remembrance  of  the  free 
life  of  Galilee  has  been  like  perfume  from  another  world, 
like  the  'dew  of  Hermon,'  which  has  prevented  drouth 
and  barrenness  from  entirely  invading  the  field  of  God." 
He  finally  closes  his  book  with  this  statement:  "What- 
ever may  be  the  unexpected  phenomena  of  the  future, 
Jesus  will  not  be  surpassed.  His  worship  will  constantly 
renew  its  youth,  the  tale  of  his  life  will  cause  ceaseless 
tears,  his  sufferings  will  soften  the  best  hearts;  all  the 
ages  will  proclaim  that,  among  the  sons  of  men,  there 
is  none  born  who  is  greater  than  Jesus."  The  great 
Frenchman  is  dead.  His  book  rests  on  the  shelves  of 
the  libraries.  His  attack  on  Jesus,  an  attack  in  which 
he  yields  every  tribute  of  admiration,  utterly  failed  of 
its  purpose.  Renan  with  all  his  genius  failed  because 
he  was  dealing  falsely  with  a  Personality  whose  divine 
largeness  he  failed  to  apprehend.  Jesus,  in  the  mean- 
time, has  moved  forward  on  his  triumphal  way  with 
no  scath  upon  his  garments,  no  hurt  upon  his  person. 


M 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 


Germany  is  a  nation  representing  great  scholarship. 
And  German  scholarship  has  undertaken  to  the  last 
degree  to  find  a  purely  rational  status  for  the  person 
and  history  of  Jesus  Christ.  Perhaps  no  single  volume 
gives  a  better  survey  of  attempts  in  this  field  than  Albert 
Schweitzer's  Quest  of  the  Historical  Jesus.  This  is  a 
neat  book.  In  its  preface  the  author  says:  "When, 
at  some  future  day,  our  period  of  civilization  shall 
lie,  closed  and  completed,  before  the  eyes  of  later  genera- 
tions, German  theology  will  stand  out  as  a  great,  a 
unique  phenomenon  in  the  mental  and  spiritual  life 
of  our  time.  For  nowhere  save  in  the  German  temper- 
ament can  there  be  found  in  the  same  perfection  the 
living  complex  of  conditions  and  factors — of  philosophic 
thought,  critical  acumen,  historic  insight,  and  religious 
feeling — without  which  no  deep  theology  is  possible. 
And  the  greatest  achievement  of  German  theology  is 
the  critical  investigation  of  the  life  of  Christ." 

This  book  traces  the  processes  of  German  critical 
thought  toward  Christ  from  Reimarus,  born  in  1694, 
to  William  Wrede,  who  died  in  1907.  It  is  of  great 
interest  carefully  to  note  the  varying  views  of  Christ 
which  have  been  put  forth  by  the  long  line — now  all 
dead — of  German  scholars.  All  of  these  men  were 
plodders,  many  of  them  brilliant,  some  of  them  friends, 
others  enemies  of  evangelical  Christianity.  Their  views 
were  often  diverse,  the  conclusions  of  one  frequently 
in  direct  conflict  with  those  of  another.  After  reading 
it  from  cover  to  cover,  one  lays  down  this  full,  rich 
volume  with  the  feeling  that  not  all  of  these  thinkers 
combined  have  said  the  last  word  about  Jesus  the  Christ, 


THE  INCOMPREHENSIBLE  CHRIST         15 

not  all  of  them  together  have  given  a  complete  state- 
ment of  his  mission,  nor  the  adequate  picture  of  his 
character.  But  Christ  none  the  less  lives,  and  still 
challenges  the  fresh  scrutiny  of  both  scholar  and  genius. 

The  spirit  of  the  hostile  critic  was  never  more  virulent 
nor  determined  than  now.  There  are  those,  and  they 
will  probably  have  their  successors  for  indefinite  time 
to  come,  some  of  them  in  command  of  great  resources, 
who  seek,  and  who  will  continue  to  seek,  to  destroy 
the  very  historicity  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  thus  to  destroy 
the  foundations  of  Christianity  itself.  These  men  are 
not  greatly  to  be  feared.  They  cannot  succeed.  They 
are  like  those  who  would  beat  the  stars  out  of  the  sky. 
Christ  is  infinitely  beyond  them.  When  they  have  done 
their  worst,  it  will  be  but  as  the  stout  sea  wave  which 
utterly  shatters  itself  against  the  immovable  rock.  The 
immeasurableness,  the  incomprehensibleness,  of  Jesus 
Christ  are  asserted  in  the  fact  that  no  progress  ever 
surpasses  him.  In  the  complexities  of  a  growing  civiliza- 
tion new  human  needs  are  continuously  developing, 
and  old  needs  are  coming  into  new  expression  and  ex- 
pansion. Old  philosophies,  creeds,  and  traditions  are 
outworn.  Not  so  with  Jesus.  There  is  no  social  or 
moral  want  made  prominent  by  the  world's  growing 
knowledge  and  experience  the  satisfaction  of  which  is 
not  discoverable  in  his  gospel. 

Under  the  title,  "The  Modern  Quest  for  a  Religion,"1 
Winston  Churchill  has  recently  published  a  most  sug- 
gestive article.  After  vividly  picturing  the  awakened 
sense  of  the  age  to  some  great  working  energy  of  the 

1  The  Century  Magazine,  December,  1913. 


,<j        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

D   i-ncrgy  not  material  but  expressing  itself  in 
"inarticulate  language  of  the  people,"  and  having 
ied   to  the  spiritual  hunger  widely  felt  in  human 
society,   he   proceeds   to   delineate   the   qualities   which 
should  characterize  the  kind  of  religion  most  perfectly 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  times.     He  then  shows  that 
all  that  could  be  hoped  for  in  the  most  perfect  religion 
the  meeting  of  human  wants  is  already  fully  sup- 
plied  in  Jesus  Christ.     What  is  the   meaning  of   that 
tremendous  awakening  in  modern  life  of  the  new  sense 
of    human    brotherhood,    and    the    growing    conviction 
that  the  highest  life  possible  to  any  man  is  the  life  of 
unselfish  service  for  his  fellows?     It  all  means  that  a 
new  view  of  Christ's  spirit  and  mission  is  entering  into 
the  vision  of  the  age.     This  is  not  to  say  that  Christ 
himself  grows,  but  that  as  man  grows  in  spiritual  knowl- 
edge and  illumination,  so  more  and  more  are  Christ's 
illimitable  glories  humanly  apprehended.     As  the  starry 
immensities  have   ever  expanded   upon  man's   growing 
knowledge,   so  in  the  moral  world  will   the  glories  of 
Christ  multiply  upon  the  spiritual  vision  of  the  race. 
As  the  most  powerful  telescope  yet  invented  reveals  only 
the  edges  of  the  universe,  so  the  experience  of  the  most 
perfect  saints  has  as  yet  only  begun  to  apprehend  his 
exhaustlcss  and  saving  wealth.     God's  scheme  for  the 
world   is  one  calling   for  unlimited   growth   for  man — 
growth  in  the  knowledge  of  material  things,  growth  in 
spiritual    attainment   and   apprehension;   but   man   will 
never  grow  to  such  stature  of  perfection  as  not  to  see 
in  Jesus  Christ  a  Being  immeasurably  transcendent  to 
himself. 


THE  INCOMPREHENSIBLE  CHRIST         17 

Confidence  in  the  final  success  of  Christ's  kingdom 
in  this  world  may  be  supreme.  He  has  undertaken 
the  world's  redemption.  His  credentials  for  this  mission 
are  divine.  All  resources  at  the  command  of  heaven 
are  his.  He  will  not  fail.  If  either  is  seriously  on 
trial  before  this  age,  it  is  clearly  the  Church  and  not 
Christ.  The  forms  and  methods  of  organized  Chris- 
tianity may  need  to  be  largely  revised  in  order  to  best 
serve  the  interests  of  the  Kingdom.  Before  closing 
this  discussion  we  shall  probably  see  much  need  for 
this.  Revision,  expansion,  and  new  adaptations  are  a 
necessity  to  any  organism  designed  for  perpetual  use- 
fulness. The  expanding  mission  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
world  will  bring  about  these  modifications  in  the  organic 
Church.  In  the  meantime  the  Christian  disciple  may 
move  forward  in  his  work  in  the  sublime  confidence 
that  comes  from  the  consciousness  of  personal  fellow- 
ship with  the  great  Master.  Jesus  Christ  is  known 
by  his  own.  The  Christ  of  the  Gospels  is  best  appre- 
hended only  by  those  in  whose  hearts  he  personally 
dwells.  What  scholarship  can  never  discover,  what 
philosophy  can  never  explain,  is  apprehended  and  realized 
in  the  faith  and  experience  of  the  Christian  life.  Christ 
does  reveal  himself  in  the  lives  of  those  who  love  and 
obey  him.  This  is  the  reason  why  no  hostile  criticism 
can  ever  understand  or  disarm  him.  He  lives,  attesting 
his  own  divinity,  in  the  hearts  of  growing  millions  whose 
love  for  him  is  such  that  if  needs  be  they  could  die  for 
him.  Schweitzer,  in  the  final  summary  of  his  book, 
says:  "The  abiding  and  eternal  in  Jesus  is  absolutely 
independent  of  historical  knowledge  and  can  only  be 


18        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

understood  by  contact  with  his  spirit,  which  is  still  at 
work  in  the  world.  In  proportion  as  we  have  the  spirit 
of  Jesus  we  have  the  true  knowledge  of  Jesus." 

Hofmann's  great  pictures  of  the  Christ  appeal  in  a 
marked  way  to  universal  favor.  A  personal  friend, 
Dr.  Henry  H.  Meyer,  once  made  a  visit  to  Hofmann 
at  his  summer  home  in  the  Saxon  Alps.  To  his  query 
as  to  the  secret  of  Hofmann's  inspiration  in  painting 
the  pictures  of  Christ,  the  old  man,  then  over  eighty 
years  of  age,  said:  "If  you  ask  for  the  testimony  of  my 
faith,  I  must  answer  that  the  matter  of  religious  faith 
is  not  so  simple  for  the  thoughtful  man  to-day.  I  do 
not  know  the  conditions  in  your  country,  but  here  in 
Germany  the  thinking  man,  who  looks  about  him  in 
an  earnest  quest  for  religious  truth,  and  notes  the  social 
and  church  conditions  as  they  really  are,  cannot  at 
times  escape  asking  himself  the  question,  'Does  the 
Christian  Church  to-day  offer  to  the  people  what  they 
have  a  right  to  expect  of  it?'  There  also  rises  the  deeper 
question,  'Does  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  really  meet 
the  deepest  needs  of  the  human  heart?'  But,  when  I 
turn  away  from  these  questionings  and  read  again  the 
story  of  his  life,  and  contemplate  again  his  teachings, 
it  is  as  though  I  were  lifted  from  the  valley  to  the  broad 
table-land,  and  from  thence  to  successive  mountain 
heights,  until  I  stand  at  last  upon  the  highest  peak, 
above  the  clouds,  where  all  is  clear  and  radiant  with 
sunlight;  and,"  he  added,  "it  has  been  during  these 
mountaintop  experiences  that  I  have  seemed  to  behold 
his  face  and  have  attempted  to  paint  his  likeness." 


PART  SECOND 
IDEAL  VERSUS  ACHIEVEMENT 


19 


THE  CHURCH:  THE  CHURCH  URBAN  AND 

RURAL 


21 


At  the  beginning  of  the  Divine-human  Book  our  first  glimpse  of  man 
i  m  a  raH*"  It  is  a  paradise  of  perfect  beauty,  of  perfect  simplicity, 
of  perfect  innocence.  It  is  a  paradise  of  virtue  unfallen  because  of  virtue 
untried.  We  turn  to  the  close  of  the  Book,  and  there  we  catch  another 
glimpse  of  man  in  a  perfect  estate.  We  see  in  this  vision  not  the  beauty 
of  innocence,  but  the  beauty  of  holiness.  We  see  not  the  unstable  peace 
at  virtue  untried,  but  the  established  peace  of  virtue  victorious.  In  the 
first  picture  we  see  individualistic  man;  in  the  second  we  see  socialized 
man.  In  the  first  we  see  man  unfallen,  sustaining  right  relations  to 
his  Creator.  In  the  second  we  see  man  redeemed,  sustaining  right  rela- 
tions to  God  and  to  his  fellows.  The  story  of  this  marvelous  human 
drama  begins  in  the  country;  its  denouement  is  in  the  city.  The  crown 
and  consummation  of  our  civilization — the  full  coming  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  on  earth — is  typified  not  by  a  garden,  but  by  a  city — a  holy  city 
— into  which  shall  enter  nothing  unclean  and  nothing  that  maketh  a 
lie. — Dr.  Josiah  Strong. 

There  is  no  single  factor  in  the  advancement  of  righteousness  and 
civilization  which  can  be  more  influential  and  effective  than  the  country 
church. — Gifford  Pinchot. 

In  all  parts  of  the  United  States  country  life  is  furnished  with 
churches.  .  .  .  These  religious  societies  hold  the  key  to  the  problem  of 
country  life.  If  they  oppose  modern  socialized  ideals  in  the  country, 
these  ideals  cannot  penetrate  the  country.  If  the  Church  undertakes 
constructive  social  service  in  the  country,  the  task  will  be  done.  The 
Church  can  oppose  effectively;  it  can  support  efficiently.  This  situation 
lays  a  vast  responsibility  upon  all  Christian  Churches,  especially  upon 
those  who  have  an  educated  ministry;  for  the  future  development  of 
the  *  "untry  community  as  a  good  place  in  which  to  live  depends  upon 
the  country  church. — Dr.  Warren  H.  Wilson. 


22 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  CHURCH:  THE  CHURCH  URBAN  AND  RURAL 

There  is  a  widely  prevalent  view  that  ecclesiastical 
Christianity  is  somehow  much  out  of  joint  with  the 
times;  that  it  is  seriously  failing  in  its  required  function 
for  the  enlargement  of  the  Kingdom.  This  view  is 
grave.  It  merits  honest,  searching,  and  fearless  exam- 
ination. Is  the  view  correct?  Is  the  Church  really 
a  declining  institution,  something  like  a  setting  sun, 
long  since  having  passed  the  zenith,  and  soon  to  sink 
down  into  night  and  darkness?  If  not,  what  is  the 
real  truth  in  the  case?  Is  it  possible  that  Christianity, 
even  in  the  very  presence  of  our  uncomprehending  vision, 
is  clothing  itself  with  new  forms  of  life?  Do  we  need 
anew  viewpoint  in  order  to  test  the  radiance  of  its 
beauty,  the  majesty  of  its  strength,  the  stride  of  its 
triumphs  ? 

Many  facts,  statistics,  studied  by  themselves  alone, 
undoubtedly  furnish  food  for  pessimism.  These  facts 
should  not  be  sidetracked.  Whatever  truth  they  give 
us,  whatever  lessons  they  convey,  should  be  measured 
fully  for  what  they  are  worth.  Truth  is  truth,  whether 
it  be  for  or  against  our  cherished  preferences.  As  Mr. 
Lincoln  said  during  the  war,  "It  is  not  the  question 
whether  the  Lord  is  on  our  side,  but  whether  we  are 
on  the  Lord's  side."  Whatever  our  views,  traditions, 
or  convictions,   we   shall   finally   make   a   safe   landing 

23 


24        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

only  as  we  are  found  squarely  in  line  with  the  truth. 
The  subject  of  our  inquiry  is  large  and  vital. 

Ideals  for  which  an  institution  stands  furnish  the 
severest  standards  of  measurement  as  to  the  relative 
success  or  failure  of  the  institution  itself.  Christian 
ideals  furnish  the  standard  by  which  the  real  successes 
or  failures  of  the  Church  itself  may  best  be  measured. 
Judged  from  this  standpoint,  what  report  must  be  given? 
We  are  in  the  twentieth  century  of  Christian  history. 
The  leaven  of  Christ's  kingdom  has  long  been  working 
in  civilization.  Let  it  be  fully  credited  that  Christianity 
has  achieved  very  great,  even  most  divine,  results  in 
the  world.  Still  a  great  question  remains.  Christianity 
has  had  a  long  history.  At  its  command  have  been 
placed  unmeasured  resources.  In  its  life  have  inhered 
vast  potentialities.  Central  to  its  creed  has  been  the 
faith  of  an  unfailing  divine  guidance  and  the  ever-present 
inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  its  life.  All  this  makes 
supreme  the  question  whether  Christianity  should  not 
already  have  achieved,  and  should  not  now  be  achieving, 
immeasurably  more  than  seems  to  be  reported  in  the 
life  of  the  Church. 

I 

Take  a  most  casual  survey  of  the  American  republic. 
This,  of  all  lands,  would  seem  to  present  the  most  favor- 
able conditions  for  the  unimpeded  progress  and  triumph 
of  Christianity.  The  virgin  soil  of  America,  especially 
in  New  England,  was  colonized  by  a  God-fearing  people 
— a  people  who  sought  refuge  from  the  tyrannies  of  the 
Old  World  that  they  might  build  here  a  nation  founded 
on   Christian   morality   and     characterized   by   religious 


THE  CHURCH  URBAN  AND  RURAL    25 

freedom.  In  the  long  period  of  the  nation's  develop- 
ment, as  State  after  State  has  been  added  to  the  national 
domain,  distinct  principles  of  Christian  morality  have 
found  expression  in  the  constitution  of  nearly  every 
State.  While  the  laws  are  framed  to  support  the  largest 
toleration  and  freedom  of  religious  worship,  yet  far 
more  than  by  implication  our  underlying  national  and 
State  constitutions  recognize  this  as  a  Christian  govern- 
ment. 

The  facts  to  be  emphasized  are  that  Christian  forces 
originally  preempted  this  territory,  and  the  laws  of 
the  land  are  all  so  shaped  as  to  foster  and  protect  the 
worship  and  institutions  of  Christianity.  The  ministry 
of  the  American  Churches,  representing  the  highest 
character,  learning,  and  influence,  have  justly  held  a 
foremost  rank  in  the  moral  citizenship  of  the  nation. 
On  the  whole,  it  may  be  said  that  no  other  single  force 
in  the  nation  has  wielded  a  greater  or  more  wholesome 
intellectual  and  moral  influence  upon  the  people  at 
large  than  has  emanated  from  the  Christian  ministry. 
The  Church,  through  the  agencies  of  its  presses  and 
schools,  has  had  great  opportunity  to  mold  the  moral 
life  of  the  people. 

In  any  survey  it  is  but  fair  that  account  should  be 
taken  of  the  immense  immigration  of  alien  peoples  into 
American  life.  But,  even  so,  the  question  comes  back: 
"Why  has  not  American  Christianity  shown  itself  vigor- 
ous enough  to  spiritually  transform  and  assimilate  these 
peoples?"  Christianity  is  a  missionary  religion,  and  it 
would  seem  that  there  ought  to  be  no  place  in  the  world 
where  its  power  to  attract  and  to  evangelize  alien  races 


26        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

should  be  so  efficient  as  under  its  own  civilization  and 
in  the  midst  of  its  own  institutions. 

What  are  the  general  facts  as  to  the  status  of  the 
Christian  Church  in  the  American  republic?  By  most 
expert  authorities  the  conclusion  is  gravely  reached 
that  vast  numbers  in  the  population  of  the  country 
are  unchurched.1  American  Protestantism  is  divided 
into  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  distinct  denominations. 
This  alone  is  a  disgraceful  chapter  in  our  religious  his- 
tory. It  tells  the  story  of  dissension  and  cleavages 
founded  on  causes  entirely  unworthy  of  the  essential 
spirit  of  Christianity.  It  suggests  the  picture  of  what 
ought  to  be  a  solid  and  efficient  army  divided  into  small 
and  rival  camps,  many  of  them  magnifying  some  petty 
shibboleth,  each  claiming  a  monopolistic  defense  of 
orthodoxy,  and  each  in  the  meantime  in  an  attitude 
inoperative  toward  the  larger  unity  of  life  and  pur- 
pose in  which  alone  Christianity  can  move  forward  to 
the  moral  conquest  of  the  world.  This  spectacle  of  a 
multiplied  and  petty  denominationalism  is  nothing  less 
than  a  reproach  to  American  Protestantism.  From  the 
standpoint  of  business  efficiency,  it  not  only  means 
inherent  weakness,  but  is  so  alien  to  the  spirit  character- 
izing the  great  and  united  movements  of  the  day  as  to 
excite  a  sense  of  contempt  and  disgust  in  the  minds 
of  clear  and  broad-thinking  men.  The  whole  thing 
is  a  most  damaging  advertisement  for  Christianity  in 
both  Christian  and  pagan  lands. 

Another  fact  of  ill-prophecy  is,  that  while  the  rate  of 
growth  in  church  membership  in  the  nineteenth  century 

■Josiah  Strong,  Social  Progress,  1906,  p.  253;  also  New  Cyclopedia  of  Reform,  p.  224. 


THE  CHURCH  URBAN  AND  RURAL    27 

was  relatively  greater  than  that  of  population  as  a  whole, 
that  process  has  been  reversed  in  the  recent  years,  the 
rate  of  increase  of  church  membership  falling  behind 
that  of  the  population.  Hand  in  hand  with  the  relative 
decrease  of  growth  in  church  membership  there  has 
been  a  corresponding  diminution  of  benevolent  and  mis- 
sionary contributions  in  the  same  period. 

II 

What  about  the  Church  and  the  city?  The  city  by 
leaps  and  bounds  is  making  itself  the  controlling  power 
in  modern  civilization.  Whatever  may  have  been  true 
in  the  past,  it  will  remain  true  hereafter  that  the  supreme 
problems  of  the  race — social,  industrial,  intellectual,  and 
moral — will  find  their  chief  field  of  discussion  and  the 
solution,  if  at  all,  in  the  city.  In  the  city  will  be  located 
the  university,  the  endowed  foundation  for  the  pro- 
motion of  scientific  knowledge,  eleemosynary  institu- 
tions, the  commanding  journalism,  the  great  publishing 
houses,  and  many  kindred  and  potent  agencies  for  giving 
direction  and  character  to  public  life.  Within  the  walls 
of  the  city  civilization  itself  is  to  win  its  supreme  vic- 
tories or  to  suffer  its  most  tragic  defeats.  Christianity 
will  be  finally  tested  by  its  demonstrated  ability  or 
inability  to  meet  and  to  overcome  the  moral  obstacles 
of  the  city,  and  to  establish  there  its  seat  of  supremacy. 
It  would  seem  significant  that  the  apocalyptic  prophecy 
locates  the  throne  of  the  final  and  triumphant  redemp- 
tion of  the  race  in  the  midst  of  a  great  city — a  city  with 
foundations  resting  upon  a  new  earth,  such  a  city  in 
the  beauty  and  purity  of  its  life  as  might  have  literally 


28        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

come  down  from  God  out  of  heaven.  The  apocalyptic 
city,  within  whose  gates  there  could  enter  nothing  which 
worketh  abomination  or  maketh  unclean,  and  whose 
very  adornings  are  typified  by  the  most  precious  and 
costly  material  things  of  earth,  is  the  foreprophecy 
of  the  city  which  in  perfection  of  life  and  beauty  shall 
arise  in  the  earth  when  the  kingdom  of  Christ  shall 
come  to  full  realization.  The  perfect  city  is  Christ's 
audacious  prophecy  for  his  kingdom.  Its  ideal  is  that 
it  shall  be  the  habitation  of  God's  people,  that  righteous- 
ness shall  sit  in  its  seats  of  power,  that  integrity,  virtue, 
and  purity  shall  be  the  revealing  features  of  its  civic, 
social,  and  domestic  life. 

What  about  the  great  cities  of  Christendom  in  this 
year  of  our  Lord?  The  licensed  saloons,  more  numer- 
ous by  far  than  the  churches,  police  graft  honey-combing 
and  debauching  the  legal  protectorate  of  the  city's 
safety,  gambling  made  a  lucrative  trade,  organized 
traffic  in  white  slavery,  the  merchandise  of  social  im- 
purity, so  thriving  that  in  every  year  thousands  of  the 
bodies  and  souls  of  women  are  murdered  at  its  shrine 
and  cast  thence  into  the  pit  of  oblivion  as  so  much  un- 
clean spawn  of  the  city's  refuse,  murder  stalking 
unarrested  in  the  dark  alleys — these,  and  their  unholy 
ilk,  are  the  crying  evils  of  the  city,  evils  which  baffle 
the  vigilant  search  of  law  and  which  flagrantly  assert 
themselves  as  against  the  most  vigorous  protests  of 
decency  and  righteousness. 

The  city  is  the  capital  seat  of  commerce.  Its  marts 
and  exchanges  are  the  channels  through  which  flow 
the  nation's  trade  and  wealth.     Here,  as  nowhere  else, 


THE  CHURCH  URBAN  AND  RURAL    29 

fortunes  are  quickly  made  and  lost.  The  grave  fact 
to  be  emphasized  is  that  vast  volumes  of  the  city's 
trade  are  conducted  without  reference  to,  or  restraint 
from,  Christian  ethics.  The  tragic  thing  is  that  too 
often  men  who  in  their  homes  and  in  private  life  are 
unexceptional  are  willing  to  act  upon  unethical  methods 
in  the  market.  Here  they  proceed  upon  the  vicious 
proverb  that  "business  is  business." 

Aside,  however,  from  these  evil  features,  only  too 
general,  what  is  the  status  of  the  Christian  Church 
itself  in  the  life  of  the  great  city?  We  are  called  upon 
for  all  reasons  not  to  detract  in  the  slightest  from  the 
good  work  which  the  Church  is  achieving  in  the  city. 
The  Church,  however  circumstances  may  be  against 
her,  is  accomplishing  a  vital,  an  indispensable  work 
— a  work  without  which  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  of 
the  city  would  be  impoverished  beyond  estimate.  Yet, 
alas!  measured  by  almost  any  visible  standard,  how 
impotent,  de  facto,  seems  the  Christian  Church  to 
cope  with,  much  less  to  control,  the  life  of  a  great  city. 
Numerically  measured,  the  Church  at  best  succeeds 
in  getting  but  a  small  proportion  of  the  population 
under  the  direct  message  of  its  ministry.  It  is  estimated 
that  in  our  large  cities,  averaging  three  hundred  thousand 
and  more,  not  more  than  seventeen  per  cent  of  the  people 
regularly  attend  church.  Dr.  R.  F.  Horton  is  authority 
for  the  statement  that  in  London  not  more  than  five 
per  cent  of  the  population  regularly  attend  church. 
Of  the  laboring  men  in  this  country  it  is  probable  also 
that  not  more  than  five  per  cent  are  habitual  church- 
goers.    Brooklyn,  New  York  city,  is  traditionally  known 


3° 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 


as  the  "City  of  Churches."  In  one  of  its  best  residential 
wards,  under  a  most  thorough  recent  house-to-house 
..•aiivass  made  under  the  auspices  of  an  organized  federa- 
tion of  churches,  it  is  revealed  that  out  of  every  one 
thousand  families  who  classify  themselves  as  Protestants, 
two  hundred  and  eighty — twenty-eight  per  cent — have 
no  church  affiliations  whatsoever.  If  these  alleged  facts, 
as  cited,  are  typical  of  general  conditions  throughout 
the  great  cities  of  the  land,  then,  it  seems  but  conserv- 
ative to  say  that  the  Protestant  Churches  are  failing 
disastrously  in  their  hold  upon  those  who  ought  to  be 
the  proper  subjects  for  their  ministry. 

Ill 

An  old  proverb  says  that  "If  man  made  the  town, 
God  made  the  country."  Without  knowledge  to  the 
contrary,  it  might  readily  be  assumed  that  the  rural 
districts  would  furnish  fair  and  thriving  fields  for  the 
churches.  The  relative  importance  of  the  rural  church 
in  the  past  would  seem  to  be  indicated  by  the  testimony 
that  fully  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  business  and 
religious  leaders  of  the  city  were  born  and  bred  in  the 
country.  The  vitality  and  ozone  of  the  country  have 
contributed  to  the  city  much  of  its  best  life.  But  the 
status  of  the  country  church  proves  distinctly  disap- 
pointing to  any  hope  based  upon  the  theory  of  its  natural 
advantage.  A  great  and  adverse  change  has  come  in 
recent  years.  The  surveys  of  many  representative  and 
widely  sundered  sections  furnish,  with  startling  uni- 
formity, reports  of  declining  attendance  upon  the  rural 
church. 


THE  CHURCH  URBAN  AND  RURAL    31 

The  causes  of  this  decline  have  been  well  ascertained. 
These  causes  are  various,  and  they  are  not  all  equally- 
operative  in  the  same  sections.  In  general,  the  appli- 
ances of  modern  life  have  worked  signal  changes  within 
recent  years  in  the  habits  of  the  rural  communities. 
In  the  earlier  periods  the  "team-haul"  distance  repre- 
sented the  measurement  of  the  social  and  business  boun- 
daries of  the  average  rural  community.  Within  these 
limits  there  were  the  country  store,  the  post  office,  the 
gristmill,  the  blacksmith  shop,  and  one  or  more  rural 
churches.  The  distances  to  be  traveled  for  barter  or 
worship  were  such  as  could  be  covered  by  the  ordinary 
drive  with  the  farmer's  team.  Within  these  limits 
there  was  much  life  with  mutual  interests.  The  people 
knew  each  other,  and  such  social  life  as  existed  was 
here  developed.  The  young  people  made  each  other's 
acquaintances,  formed  their  attachments,  and  started 
their  new  homes,  usually  within  these  given  limits. 
The  life  of  these  communities  was  largely  sufficient 
to  itself.  The  people  raised  their  own  bread,  spun 
their  own  flax  and  wool,  and  had  little  occasion  or  desire 
to  know  luxuries  which  might  be  imported  from  far 
climes.  The  world-vision  of  these  people  was  narrow 
and  comparatively  obscure.  The  days  of  the  railroad, 
of  the  daily  press,  of  the  telegraph,  and  the  telephone 
were  still  far  distant.  The  people,  old  and  young,  were 
inured  to  toil.  Life  with  them  was  no  playday.  Their 
worship  was  in  keeping  with  the  community  type.  To 
those  who  were  religious,  religion  was  a  cherished  asset. 
Their  faith  was  simple  and  rugged.  The  articles  of 
their  creed  were  not  numerous,  but  they  were  clearly 


32        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

defined,  often  somber  and  severe,  and  adhered  to  with 
dogmatic  tenacity.  Much  of  the  most  cherished  life 
of  these  early  communities  was  developed  hand  in  hand 
with  their  worship  in  the  primitive  and  simple  rural 
church. 

This  type  of  community  the  nation  over  has  pretty 
much  disappeared.  If  we  were  to  seek  for  contrasts 
which  the  appliances  of  modern  life  have  effected  as 
between  the  present  and  the  past,  we  could  hardly 
ask  for  any  more  vivid  than  those  presented  between 
the  modern  and  former  rural  communities.  To-day  the 
rural  delivery,  the  daily  paper  and  the  magazine,  the 
telephone,  the  trolley  car,  the  electric  vehicle,  machine 
planters,  mowers,  reapers,  and  harvesters,  the  piano 
and  sewing  machine,  not  to  speak  of  a  hundred  other 
things,  are  the  common  possessions  of  rural  life.  The 
doors  of  superior  educational  opportunities  are  wide 
open  to  all  the  children  of  the  farm,  and  the  tastes, 
requirements,  and  styles  of  urban  life  have  traveled 
into  many  country  homes.  The  change  effected  by  all 
this  in  the  scope  of  educational  concepts,  social  ideals, 
and  even  in  religious  faith,  it  is  impossible  to  measure. 
One  thing  is  certain — the  old  rural  life,  with  its  simple 
habits,  its  social,  industrial,  and  religious  ideals  and 
methods,  has  gone,  never  to  be  reproduced.  The  present 
generation,  let  it  be  headed  which  way  it  will,  can  never 
by  any  possibility  put  itself  back  into  the  ideals  and 
methods  of  its  forefathers.  On  general  principles,  vast 
revisions  from  the  beliefs  and  customs  of  former  gen- 
erations were  made  inevitable  in  the  transition  from 
the  older  to  the  new  life  of  to-day.     In  so  general  a 


THE  CHURCH  URBAN  AND  RURAL    33 

modernizing  movement  the  questions  of  worship  and 
of  faith  could  not  fail  to  be  involved. 

The  country  church  in  general  has  not  kept  pace  with 
modern  progressive  movements.  In  the  single  matter 
of  church  architecture,  the  rural  church  is  generally  and 
relatively  far  behind  the  city.  Very  many  edifices 
throughout  the  country  are  old  and  dilapidated.  They 
are  not  only  unattractive  in  appearance,  but  they  are 
practically  uncomfortable  for  use.  Many  of  them  are 
single-roomed,  or,  at  best,  they  have  upstairs  audi- 
toriums and  downstairs  basements.  These  churches 
are  built  on  lines  that  reflect  the  austere  and  primitive 
habits  of  former  days.  They  do  not  invite  to  social 
life,  much  less  to  the  cheer  and  enthusiasm  of  a  glad 
spiritual  worship. 

Another  blight  on  the  rural  churches  is  in  the 
multiplication  of  denominations.  In  order  to  give  a 
concrete  illustration  of  this  too  general  condition  I  cite 
literally  a  statement  of  experience  of  a  Presbyterian 
minister,  Dr.  Charles  B.  Taylor,  of  McArthur,  Ohio. 
He  says: 

In  the  field  where  I  spent  the  last  few  years  of  my  pastoral  life,  at 

the  southern  extremity  of  the  field  is  the  village  of  T ,  with  about 

two  hundred  inhabitants.  There  are  four  churches  in  the  place — Method- 
ist, United  Brethren,  Presbyterian,  and  Christian.  Two  miles  east 
is  another  Methodist  church,  and  a  mile  and  a  half  north  is  another  United 
Brethren  church.  The  entire  population  living  within  convenient  distance 
of  these  six  churches  is  about  nine  hundred.  The  aggregate  member- 
ship of  these  churches  is  about  two  hundred  and  seventy,  or  about  forty- 
five  to  each  church.  Four  ministers  labored  among  these  churches, 
their  fields  extending  elsewhere  over  wide  circuits.  The  Methodist 
Episcopal  minister  supplied  five  churches.  On  one  Sunday  he  preached 
three  times  and  rode  eighteen  miles.  On  the  next  Sunday  he  preached 
twice  and  rode  ten  miles.  He  conducted  five  series  of  special  revival 
services  during  the  year,  and  did  a  large  amount  of  pastoral  work,  visit- 


34        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

ing  the  sick  and  burying  the  dead.  His  salary  was  five  hundred  dollars 
a  year  and  a  parsonage. 

The  United  Brethren  minister  had  seven  churches  under  his  care. 
He  preached  at  each  place  once  in  three  weeks.  During  the  year  he 
held  seven  Berks  of  special  services.  The  churches  were  widely  scattered. 
The  i  ireacher's  salary  was  four  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars.  With  that 
pitiful  amount  he  supported  his  family,  paid  house-rent,  and  kept  ahorse. 
The  brother  who  ministered  to  the  Christian  church  had  four  churches 
under  his  care.     His  salary  was  about  four  hundred  and  eighty  dollars. 

My  field  consisted  of  four  little  Presbyterian  churches,  extending 
along  a  line  from  north  to  south.  On  one  Sunday  I  drove  twenty-four 
miles  and  preached  twice,  and  occasionally  three  times.  On  the  next 
Sunday  I  drove  eight  miles  and  preached  twice.  The  territory  under 
my  pastoral  care  was  twenty-one  miles  long  and  eight  miles  wide.  The 
visitation  of  the  sick  and  the  large  number  of  funerals  to  which  I  was 
called  added  much  to  the  burdens  of  the  work.  Like  other  brethren, 
I  was  expected  to  hold  a  series  of  special  services  at  each  church.  I 
preached  about  two  hundred  sermons  each  year,  and  drove  nearly  two 
thousand  miles  over  rough  hills  and,  for  the  most  part,  red-clay  roads. 
The  winter  trips  were  hard  for  a  man  of  my  age.  My  salary  was  eight 
hundred  dollars. 

Four  preachers  ministered  to  twenty  churches,  and  the  work  broke 
down  strong  men.  The  other  three  received  salaries  which  were  pitifully 
inadequate.  Our  congregations  were  small.  The  little  churches  lacked 
the  enthusiasm  which  comes  with  numbers.  And  the  pity  of  it  was 
that  we  covered  practically  the  same  ground,  and  crossed  and  recrossed 
the  tracks  of  each  other  every  day.1 

The  results  of  such  a  situation  are  more  negative 
than  good.  Undue  emphasis  is  laid  upon  denominational 
differences.  Conscientious  people  are  held  aloof  from 
effective  cooperation  in  needed  Christian  work.  Min- 
isters in  such  communities  are  meagerly  supported, 
and  hence,  by  an  inevitable  law,  if  they  remain  upon 
the  ground,  they  lose  both  heart  and  effectiveness. 
Indeed,  there  is  very  little  in  such  a  community  to  in- 
spire either  enthusiasm  or  hope  in  the  average  minister. 
A  young  man  doomed  to  such  a  service  will,  as  a  rule, 

'Professor  Garland  A.  Bricker,  Solving  the  Country  Church  Problem,  pp.  76-78. 


THE  CHURCH  URBAN  AND  RURAL    35 

come  after  a  while  to  accept  the  limitations  of  his  environ- 
ment. His  personal  support  is  insufficient.  He  can 
neither  buy  new  books  with  which  to  feed  and  stimulate 
his  mind,  nor  can  he  afford  travel,  by  which  he  could 
refresh  and.  enlarge  his  vision.  The  average  young 
minister,  whatever  his  native  talent  or  his  initial  ad- 
vantages, will  be  sure  in  the  end  to  succumb  to  a  situa- 
tion which  does  not  admit  of  expansion.  A  small, 
unresponsive  and  unprogressive  community  presents 
conditions  which  are  deadly  to  professional  ambition. 
A  live  man  will  either  escape  such  a  situation,  or,  if 
he  is  held  to  its  environment,  he  is  so  robbed  of  the 
stimuli  of  growth,  of  the  incentive  to  endeavor,  that 
he  soon  acquires  the  habit  and  mood  of  confirmed 
mediocrity.  If  a  community  pursues  the  policy  of 
paying  starvation  wages,  then  that  community  will 
receive  its  reward  in  the  services  of  an  anaemic  ministry 
— a  ministry  victimized  by  chronic  starvation  of  its 
social,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  faculties. 

A  largely  underlying  difficulty  in  the  problem  of  the 
rural  church  is  the  lack  of  ready  money  in  the  average 
farming  community.  The  farmer  is  proverbially  frugal. 
There  are  reasons  which  make  this  inevitable.  For  the 
most  part  he  handles  very  little  money.  In  order  to 
save  at  all  he  must  be  industrious,  economical,  careful 
at  every  point  in  his  expenditures.  It  is  the  general 
testimony  concerning  good  lands  in  Missouri  that  after 
having  paid  the  legal  rate  of  interest  on  his  farm  invest- 
ment, there  remains  to  the  farmer  only  about  enough 
to  pay  his  store  bills.1     Among  six  hundred  and  fifteen 

1  Bricker,  Solving  the  Country  Church  Problem,  p.  36. 


36        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

farmers  located  in  the  State  of  New  York,  near  Cornell 
University,  where  the  farmers  are  supposed  to  profit 
by  the  services  of  the  Agricultural  College,  it  was  found 
on  intensive  investigation  that  these  men  averaged  only 
about  four  hundred  and  twenty-three  dollars  each.1 
Iowa  is  supposed  to  be  one  of  the  best  of  the  agricultural 
States.  The  editor  of  Wallace's  Farmer  is  authority 
for  the  statement  that  the  margin  of  profit  in  Iowa 
is  the  margin  of  child  labor  on  the  farm.2  It  is  much 
easier  to  interest  the  Iowa  farmer  in  the  purchase  of 
up-to-date  farming  implements  than  it  is  to  interest 
him  in  the  improvement  of  the  schools  or  the  public 
highways.  This  means  that  he  has  more  money  to 
spend  in  improving  his  farm  industry  than  he  has  to 
spend  upon  social  or  neighborhood  improvements.  In 
the  country  at  large  there  are  many  States  whose  farm- 
ing profits  average  lower  rather  than  above  those  in 
the  State  of  Iowa.  It  is  easy  to  see  how,  under  such 
general  conditions,  the  country  church  is  likely  to  re- 
ceive only  a  meager  financial  support.  This  condition 
alone  very  largely  accounts  both  for  the  poor  quality 
of  country  church  edifices  and  the  insufficient  salaries 
paid  to  preachers. 

The  ministry  should  not  be,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact 
certainly  is  not,  a  mercenary  profession.  Young  men 
do  not  enter  this  profession,  as  one  might  enter  one 
of  several  other  callings,  with  the  hope  that  from  services 
rendered  a  liberal,  if  not  an  affluent,  income  will  be 
realized.     All  that  can  be  looked  for  at  best  is  a  living 


1  Brickcr,  Solving  the  Country  Church  Problem,  p.  36. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  37. 


THE  CHURCH  URBAN  AND  RURAL    37 

income  which,  frugally  husbanded,  may  serve  to  keep 
the  family  in  respectable  comfort,  and  possibly  to  pro- 
vide suitable  educational  advantages  for  the  children. 
It  may  be  questioned  whether  the  members  of  any 
other  high-grade  profession  have  acquired,  as  have 
the  families  of  ministers,  the  art  of  making  a  small  in- 
come go  so  far  in  the  direction  of  maintaining  respectable 
appearances  and  a  comfortable  living.  The  pastor  in 
any  parish,  if  conscientiously  faithful  in  discharge  of 
duty,  feels  called  upon  to  render  innumerable  services, 
many  of  which  make  heavy  drafts  upon  his  nervous 
force  and  sympathies.  He  has  many  diverse  characters 
and  interests  to  deal  with,  and  is  often  subject  to  crit- 
icism which  is  both  thoughtless  and  heartless.  A  writer 
in  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra  puts  the  situation  as  follows: 
"As  a  simple  matter  of  truth  the  minister  is  the  hardest- 
worked  wage-earner  in  the  country.  No  first-class 
carpenter  or  plumber  or  mason  or  other  skilled  artisan 
has  to  surrender  so  many  personal  rights  and  submit 
to  so  many  indignities,  both  with  respect  to  himself 
and  his  family,  as  the  average  minister  of  to-day;  and 
the  wages  of  the  skilled  artisan  are  now  higher  to  boot." 
It  must  be  self-evident  that  no  Christian  minister 
can  do  his  best  work,  under  conditions  of  self-respect 
or  of  comfort  for  himself  and  family,  who  fails  to  receive 
a  competent  living  support.  But  the  ministerial  pro- 
fession is  by  odds  the  poorest  paid  profession  in  the 
nation.  The  average  minister's  salary  in  the  United 
States,  outside  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  largest  cities, 
is  five  hundred  and  seventy- three  dollars.  The  Com- 
mission appointed  by  President  Roosevelt  to  settle  the 


3  8        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

anthracite  coal  strike  reported  that  the  average  earn- 
ings of  certain  classes  of  laborers  in  Pennsylvania  were 
as  follows: 

Stablemen $689.52 

Pumpmen 685 .  72 

Carpenters 603 .  90 

Blacksmiths 557  •  431 

In  the  investigations  of  the  conditions  of  The  Country 
Church,  by  Charles  Otis  Gill  and  Gifford  Pinchot,  these 
authors  feel  compelled  to  emphasize  the  lack  of  adequate 
ministerial  support  as  one  of  the  principal  causes  in  the 
decline  of  the  rural  church.  Comparing  periods  twenty 
years  apart,  while  it  is  shown  that  ministerial  salaries 
generally  in  the  same  territories  have  been  nominally 
increased,  yet,  in  view  of  the  present  higher  costs  of 
living,  the  salaries  now  paid  have  by  a  considerable 
margin  less  purchasing  power  than  was  true  of  the  smaller 
salaries  of  the  earlier  period. 

On  general  principles,  it  ought  to  prove  true  that 
in  the  richer  farming  regions  the  rural  church  should 
receive  the  better  support.  And  this  in  many  sections 
is  shown  to  be  the  fact.  But  in  the  larger  and  richer 
farming  regions  other  conditions  often  intervene  to 
disturb  this  natural  tendency.  In  the  better  farming 
sections  it  often  happens  that  the  land  is  owned  by 
an  absentee  landlord.  The  farm  is  cultivated  by  a 
tenant,  who  pays  rent  for  his  privileges.  In  such  case 
the  rule  is  that  neither  the  absentee  owner  nor  the  tenant 
feels  much  responsibility  for  the  church.  In  many 
cases    the    well-to-do    farmer    moves    into    town    either 

1  Simm,  What  Must  the  Church  Do  To  Be  Saved?  p.  194. 


THE  CHURCH  URBAN  AND  RURAL    39 

for  the  purpose  of  leading  a  retired  life  for  himself,  or 
of  giving  his  children  better  educational  advantages. 
In  such  case  the  same  thing  happens  as  before.  The 
man  so  placed,  as  a  rule,  does  not  lend  much  financial 
aid  either  to  the  rural  church  which  he  has  left  nor  to 
the  town  church  which  he  attends. 

A  condition  which  has  often  worked  depletion  to  the 
country  church  is  in  the  fact  that  the  children  of  farmers 
go  from  home  for  purposes  of  education.  But  the 
college-bred  farmer's  boy  or  girl  rarely  goes  back  to 
make  a  living  on  the  old  farm.  It  is  from  such  stock 
that  the  city  is  constantly  making  heavy  drafts  for  the 
reenforcement  of  its  own  most  potent  life. 

It  is  also  said,  and  probably  with  much  truth,  that 
the  average  college  and  seminary-bred  preacher  fails 
largely  to  adapt  himself  to  the  country  congregation. 
The  education  he  has  received,  the  newspapers,  the 
magazines,  and  the  books  which  he  reads,  all  are  far 
less  imbued  with  a  spirit  of  country  than  of  urban  life. 
He  unconsciously  fails  to  put  himself  en  rapport  with 
the  moods  and  habits  of  rural  thought,  and  thus  fails 
to  command  an  enthusiastic  following  from  his  parish- 
ioners. So  controlling  is  this  tendency  that,  in  the 
judgment  of  many  experts  on  the  rural  church  problem, 
the  candidate  for  the  rural  pulpit  ought,  as  part  of  his 
ministerial  equipment,  to  take  a  thorough  course  in 
an  agricultural  college. 

If  these  surveys  of  many  representative  and  widely 
sundered  sections  furnish,  and  with  startling  uniformity, 
reports  of  declining  attendance  upon  the  rural  church, 
we  do  not  have  to  travel  far  to  discover  many  reasons 


4o        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

for  such  declension.  These  reasons  in  themselves,  how- 
ever, do  not  much  help  our  faith.  An  honest  facing 
of  the  real  facts  seems  to  force  upon  us  the  unwelcome 
conclusion  that  in  city  and  country  alike  the  Church 
is  falling  gravely  short  of  realizing  the  larger  ideals  of 
its  mission. 


THE   CHURCH  AND   THE   POOR 


41 


Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  them,  Go  and  show  John  again  those 
things  which  ye  do  hear  and  see:  the  blind  receive  their  sight,  and  the 
lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  and  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  are  raised 
up,  and  the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them. — Matthew  ii.  4,  5. 

The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed  me  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor;  he  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted, 
to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised. — Luke  4.  18. 

The  number  of  propertyless  wage-earners  is  on  the  increase;  their 
material  existence  is  growing  more  precarious,  and  the  spirit  of  dissatis- 
faction and  revolt  is  developing  among  them. — Morris  Hillquit. 

Only  as  all  the  wealth  of  possession  and  knowledge,  of  joy  and  virtue, 
is  opened  to  hearts  most  remote  from  the  worths  of  life,  is  there  the  fill- 
ing up  of  the  great  gulf,  the  uniting  of  a  man  with  humanity.  Only  as 
these  goods  are  poured  out  to  those  from  whom  no  recompense  can  be 
expected,  and  we  offer  the  feast  of  life  to  the  poor,  the  lame,  and  the 
blind,  do  we  actually  unite  ourselves  with  humanity.  Anything  short 
of  this  limits  us  to  a  class,  a  segment  separate  from  mankind.  Only 
in  devoted  ministry  to  "these  least"  are  we  one  with  humanity  in  all 
the  sorrows  and  strivings  and  common  values,  whereby  we  accomplish 
the  social,  the  universal  achievement  of  the  spiritual  task. — Charles 
Henry  Dickinson. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  POOR 

A  great  Christian  ideal  is  that  the  gospel  is  for  the 
poor.  Christ  was  born  and  reared  among  the  lowly. 
He  was  known  as  the  friend  of  those  who  labor  and 
are  heavy-laden.  His  services  for  and  among  the  poor 
were  so  brotherly,  so  sincere,  so  rich,  so  unceasing,  that 
throughout  his  entire  public  life  his  very  pathway  was 
thronged  by  grateful  masses. 

In  his  drama  Mary  Magdalene,  Maeterlinck  gives 
the  name  "Silenus"  to  a  Roman  nobleman  who  was 
the  friend  of  Mary  Magdalene,  and  in  whose  house 
she  was  often  a  guest.  Next  door  to  Silenus  dwelt 
Simon  the  leper,  a  rich  man  whom  Jesus  had  cured 
of  leprosy.  Jesus  was  a  familiar  guest  in  the  home  of 
Simon.  It  was  on  Simon's  grounds  that  the  poor  fre- 
quently gathered  to  receive  his  ministry.  Mary  Mag- 
dalene, who  was  herself  wealthy,  had  lost  a  precious 
treasure,  which  she  thought  had  been  stolen  by  some 
follower  of  Jesus.  This  drew  from  Silenus  the  reply 
which  I  here  quote  as  illustrating  Maeterlinck's  con- 
ception of  Christ's  relation  to  the  poor. 

Silenus  says:  "I  am  in  fairly  good  position  to  know 
the  band,  seeing  that  for  five  or  six  days,  it  has  been 
gathered  near  my  house.  I  have  even  had  the  pleasure 
— for  everything  turns  to  pleasure  at  my  age — I  have 
even  had  the  pleasure  of  attending  one  of  their  meet- 

43 


44        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

ings.  It  was  near  the  old  road  to  Jericho.  The  leader 
was  speaking  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd  covered  with  dust 
and  rags,  among  whom  I  observed  a  large  number  of 
rather  repulsive  cripples  and  sick.  They  seem  extremely 
ignorant  and  exalted.  They  are  poor  and  dirty,  but 
I  believe  them  to  be  harmless  and  incapable  of  stealing 
more  than  a  cup  of  water  or  an  ear  of  wheat." 

Again  he  says  concerning  these  meetings  on  Simon's 
grounds:  "It  is  a  perpetual  coming  and  going,  a  per- 
petual tumult.  Their  orchard  is  filled  incessantly  with 
a  multitude  of  sick,  of  vagrants,  of  cripples,  issuing 
from  all  the  rocks  in  Judaea  to  beseech  him,  whom, 
with  loud  cries,  they  call  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  the 
Son  of  David  and  King  of  the  Jews.  There  are  some- 
times so  many  of  them  that  they  overflow  into  my  garden." 

At  its  very  origin  Christianity  surrounded  itself  with 
a  kind  of  communistic  atmosphere  in  which  the  poor 
were  made  to  feel  their  full  peership  and  kinship  as 
citizens  of  the  Kingdom.  Historically,  Christianity,  in 
its  most  intense  and  awakening  spiritual  periods,  has 
always  voiced  itself  in  resistless  appeal  to  laboring  and 
burdened  life;  in  this  life  it  has  wrought  its  greatest 
transformations,  from  such  it  has  recruited  its  largest 
numbers  and  most  valuable  working  forces.  Are  the 
Protestant  churches  of  to-day  the  churches  of  the  poor? 
It  should  be  emphasized  that  here  and  there  through- 
out our  great  centers  of  population  there  are  individual 
churches,  well  attended,  and  whose  congregations  are 
made  up  mostly  of  wTage-earners  and  poor  people.  The 
worship  is  usually  characterized  by  a  zest  and  joy  of 
service  indicating  a  hearty  spirituality.     Such  churches 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  POOR  45 

illustrate  the  truth  that  the  faith  and  spirit  of  the  gospel 
as  exemplified  by  the  Master  still  make  their  welcome 
appeal  to  the  multitudes. 

But  it  could  hardly  be  claimed,  I  think,  that  such  are 
the  typical  Protestant  Churches  of  the  present.  The 
famous  churches  of  our  great  cities  are,  for  the  most 
part,  supported  and  attended  by  the  privileged  classes 
— privileged  in  the  sense  of  temporal  prosperity.  These 
churches  pay  high  salaries,  command  the  ablest  pulpit 
talent,  enjoy  the  most  perfect  rendering  of  sacred  music 
from  organ  and  choir.  Their  material  accessories  of 
worship  are  likely  to  be  the  most  attractive  which  money 
and  artistic  skill  may  secure.  But  in  the  pews  of  such 
churches,  well-nigh  without  exception,  the  really  poor 
have  only  at  best  a  minor  representation.  The  truth 
is  that  the  poor  do  not  feel  at  home  in  these  stately 
edifices  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  Him  who  was  born 
in  a  manger,  and  who  throughout  his  beneficent  min- 
istry was  a  homeless  wanderer,  not  having  as  much  as 
a  cot  of  his  own  on  which  at  night  to  lay  his  wearied  body. 

It  should  be  said  to  the  credit  of  many  churches  whose 
pews  are  thronged  with  wealthy  worshipers  that  they 
give  largely  in  support  of  missions  in  congested  neigh- 
borhoods for  the  benefit  of  the  poor.  The  motives 
of  such  giving  are  not  to  be  impugned.  The  good  achieved 
therefrom  should  be  fully  accredited.  The  workers  in 
these  missions  are  doubtless  personally  consecrated  and 
useful.  Yet  there  is  a  class  quality  in  such  ministra- 
tion which  does  not  appear  even  to  its  beneficiaries 
quite  of  the  kind  which  Christ  was  wont  to  give  in  his 
personal  ministry,  nor  quite  of  the  kind  which  he  would 


46        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

give  were  he  physically  present  to-day  among  the  poor. 
There  are  many  who  in  a  spirit  of  sheer  self-respect 
decline  to  avail  themselves  of  a  gospel  which  is  relegated 
to  them  through  the  hired  agencies  of  the  absent  rich. 
It  is  the  direct  action  of  personality,  of  heart  upon  heart, 
that  really  tells  in  the  winning  of  men.  This  was  Christ's 
method.  He  gave  himself.  In  the  vision  of  Sir  Launfal 
Christ  is  made  to  say: 

"The  Holy  Supper  is  kept,  indeed, 
In  whatso  we  share  with  another's  need; 
Not  what  we  give,  but  what  we  share, 
For  the  gift  without  the  giver  is  bare; 
Who  gives  himself  with  his  alms  feeds  three, 
Himself,  his  hungering  neighbor,  and  me." 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  more  to  state  than 
to  explain  conditions.  But  a  most  casual  view  of  our 
times  make  obvious  some  causes  which  tend  to  cleavage 
between  the  Church  and  the  poor.  To  most  of  the 
poor,  life  is  a  struggle  for  the  mere  necessities  of  exist- 
ence. From  a  mere  financial  standpoint  the  Church 
is  a  luxury  which  many  self-respecting  poor  feel  that 
they  cannot  afford.  They  prefer  to  drop  out  of  church 
associations  rather  than  to  rank  themselves  either  -as 
financial  delinquents  or  charity  subjects. 

This,  moreover,  is  an  age  in  which  more  than  ever 
before,  the  poor  are  awakened  to  a  sense  of  solidarity. 
They  are,  as  a  great  class,  beginning  to  feel  the  poten- 
tialities of  their  social  and  industrial  strength.  There 
is  a  wide  feeling  among  them  that  capitalism,  which 
has  such  a  potent  voice  in  shaping  and  directing  the 
policies  of  the  Church,  and  which  so  powerfully  controls 
the  business  world,   is  neither  self-denying  nor  just  in 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  POOR  47 

its  relations  to  the  poor.  It  is  this  feeling,  widely  abroad, 
about  the  selfishness  and  tyranny  of  capitalism  which 
accounts  for  Socialism  in  politics,  for  the  labor  union 
in  the  industrial  world,  and  for  many  other  forms  of 
organized  protest  against  social  and  industrial  injustice 
imposed  upon  the  weak  by  the  strong.  The  spirit  and 
motive  of  an  industrial  democracy  are  wide  abroad  in 
the  age.  By  subtle  gravitation  the  interests  of  the 
poor  are  aligned  with  Socialism — to-day  a  growing 
menace  in  civilization — or  with  other  industrial  creeds 
or  philosophies  of  social  amelioration. 

The  poor  en  masse  were  never  so  interested  as  now 
in  the  quest,  to  be  enjoyed  in  this  mundane  life,  of  a 
garden  of  physical  plenty,  if  not  of  luxury.  There  is 
a  growing  sense  of  the  right  of  all  God's  children  to  a 
fair  share  of  the  common  bounties  of  nature.  This 
sense  will  never  subside.  Before  its  rising  strength  all 
facts  of  social  or  industrial  injustice  will  be  increasingly 
resisted.  Unfortunately,  be  the  inference  true  or  false, 
there  is  a  wide  impression  in  the  laboring  world  that 
the  Church  in  its  controlling  mind  is  not  practically 
sympathetic  with  the  deeper  needs  of  the  poor,  that 
it  is  not  openly  and  bravely  a  defender  of  the  rights 
of  the  poor  as  against  the  assumptions  and  encroach- 
ments of  capitalistic  interests.  This  view  has  been 
put  injuriously  deep  into  the  minds  of  multitudes  of 
the  laboring  masses.  In  the  world  of  organized  labor, 
now  a  large  world,  there  is  well-nigh  universal  distrust 
of,  if  not  alienation  toward,  the  Church.  I  cannot 
believe  that  the  real  spirit  of  Protestant  Churches  is 
such  as  to  justify  this  antipathy  of  labor.     But  that 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

there  exists  a  wide  cleavage  between  the  Church  and 
labor  no  discerning  man  can  deny. 

A  few  years  ago  President  Plantz,  of  Lawrence  College, 
in  preparation  of  a  highly  useful  book,  addressed  a  letter 
to  the  secretary  of  every  national  organization  of  labor 
in  the  United  States — two  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
letters  in  all.  A  question  asked  was  this:  "What  do 
you  think  is  the  general  attitude  of  the  laboring  class 
at  the  present  time  to  the  Church,  one  of  cordiality, 
indifference,  dissatisfaction,  or  hostility?"  Ninety-three 
replies  were  received.  Of  these  only  six  stated  the 
attitude  to  be  one  of  cordiality;  eleven  said  indifference; 
three,  hostility;  and  the  balance,  dissatisfaction. 

A  second  question  was  asked:  "What,  in  your  opinion t 
are  the  reasons  for  this  attitude?"  The  replies,  all 
interesting  and  many  elaborate,  clearly  show  that  the 
indifference  of  working  classes  to  the  Church  grows 
largely  out  of  the  position  which  the  Church  is  assumed 
to  hold  on  social  and  labor  questions. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  defend  the  positions  taken 
by  these  leaders  of  labor.  The  thing  to  be  emphasized 
is  the  attitude,  whether  just  or  unjust,  in  which  labor 
stands  in  relation  to  the  Church.  The  men  who  framed 
these  answers,  answers  which  carry  such  unanimity  of 
conclusion,  are  recognized  leaders  in  the  labor  world. 
They  are  intelligent  men.  They  know  the  very  thought 
and  feeling  of  the  laboring  masses.  Their  statements 
doubtless  give  a  true  reflection  of  the  real  situation. 
The  grave  feature  of  the  case  is  that  labor  is  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  Church.  It  holds  itself  aloof  from  the 
Church.     It  refuses  to  recognize  the  Church  as  either 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  POOR  49 

its  social,  moral,  or  spiritual  guide.  To  either  party 
in  the  case  the  situation,  justly  looked  upon,  can  only 
be  regarded  as  fraught  with  disaster. 

The  Church  has  no  more  legitimate,  no  more  sacred, 
mission  than  to  the  laboring  multitudes.  If  God's 
Fatherhood  yearns  over  mankind,  if  Jesus  Christ  died 
for  all  men,  then,  the  Church  ought  supremely  to  be 
the  agent  for  winning  the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich  to  the 
refuge  of  God's  friendship.  By  all  the  sanctities  of 
its  divine  mission  it  ought  to  prove  itself  the  most  perfect 
friend  of  the  friendless,  the  most  perfect  helper  of  the 
helpless.  A  nurtured  alienation  of  the  poor  as  against 
the  Church  can  in  the  interests  of  the  Church  itself 
be  construed  as  no  less  than  a  calamity  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude. 

But  this  attitude  can  finally  mean  no  less  a  calamity 
to  the  laborer  himself.  If  he  cuts  himself  away  from 
the  fellowships,  the  nurture,  the  inspiring  ideals  and 
hopes  of  the  Christian  Church,  where  else  is  he  to  go 
to  find  a  compensating  moral  ministry?  If  he  shall 
do  this,  toward  what  future  does  he  face  his  own  poster- 
ity? If  he  feels  that  his  lot  with  all  that  the  Church 
can  do  for  him  is  limited  and  poor,  then,  what  will  be 
his  own  moral  future,  the  future  of  his  children,  when 
by  deliberate  choice  he  shuts  himself  and  his  house- 
hold away  from  the  doors  of  the  Christian  sanctuary? 
By  his  own  choice  he  moves  himself  and  his  family 
out  into  the  blank  wastes  of  materialistic  living.  For 
the  bread  that  he  eats,  and  the  raiment  that  he  wears, 
he  will  still  have  to  toil  and  struggle.  The  conditions 
of  his  earthly  lot  in  divorcement  from  the  Church  will 


5o        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

certainly  not  be  improved.  Into  his  home  will  come 
trouble,  sickness,  and  bereavement.  Where,  in  his 
unchurched  life,  is  he  then  to  turn  for  consolation,  to 
what  agency  is  he  to  look  for  that  ministry  of  heaven 
which  in  such  experiences  he  will  supremely  need? 
And  then,  the  future  of  his  children — does  he  dare  to 
send  them  forth  into  the  world  destitute  of  Christian 
nurture?  History  lends  its  tragic  testimony  to  the 
fatal  perils  of  such  a  choice.  No.  The  laboring  men, 
the  weary  and  heavy-laden,  need  few  things  more  vitally 
than  they  need  the  ministries  and  fellowships  of  the 
Christian  Church.  The  Church  needs  the  laboring  man. 
The  laboring  man  needs  the  Church.  Their  interests 
and  services  ought  to  be  merged  in  a  mutual  and  indis- 
soluble union. 

It  is  a  paramount  pity  that  just  in  this  age  there 
should  be  anything  like  a  marked  cleavage  between 
the  Church  and  organized  labor.  The  world  of  labor 
is  a  wide-awake  world.  The  Church  ought  to  surround 
and  invade  this  world  with  the  best  ideals,  the  best 
inspirations,  the  best  sympathies  which  can  be  born 
of  a  heaven-inspired  gospel  for  humanity.  The  labor 
movement  cannot  be  ignored.  It  is  born  of  new  ideals, 
from  a  new  intelligence,  and  is  pervaded  and  sustained 
by  a  great  and  growing  sense  of  human  rights.  In  the 
movement,  as  we  have  been  forced  to  study  it,  there 
appears  much  that  is  crude  and  even  brutal.  In  the 
camp  of  labor  the  spirit  of  the  incendiary  and  the  assassin 
has  sometimes  stirred  the  atmosphere  of  riot  and  of 
terror;  out  from  this  camp  the  hell-inspired  dynamiter 
has  sometimes  stolen  forth  in  the  night  upon  the  fell 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  POOR  51 

mission  of  destroying  property  and  life.  But  these 
are  exotics  of  evil  such  as  sometimes  grow  under  the 
hedges  and  in  the  darkened  corners  of  the  human  garden. 
They  should  not  be  accepted  as  standards  for  judging 
the  labor  movement.  They  are  not  the  normal  product 
of  labor  organizations.  The  great  mass  of  labor  is 
law-abiding,  home-loving,  and  at  its  heart  there  is  an 
irrepressible  yearning  for  citizenship  in  the  common- 
wealth of  an  enfranchised  humanity. 

The  labor  movement  throbs  with  the  birth-throes  of 
a  new  industrial  civilization.  It  is  a  movement  for- 
ward, not  backward;  Canaan,  not  Egypt,  is  its  goal. 
It  will  be  discreditable,  a  lasting  reproach  to  the  Church, 
if  in  this  age  she  fails  to  realize  her  own  great  opportunity, 
under  the  standards  of  the  gospel,  to  install  herself  as 
the  leader  and  inspirer  of  the  armies  of  labor. 


PART   THIRD 
FACTORS   OF   LIMITATION 


53 


RATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS 


55 


Brethren,  I  count  not  myself  to  have  apprehended:  but  this  one  thing 
I  do,  forgetting  those  things  which  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto 
those  things  which  are  before,  I  press  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of 
the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus.  .  .  .  We  ...  do  not  cease  to  pray 
for  you,  and  to  desire  that  ye  might  be  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  his 
will  in  all  wisdom  and  spiritual  understanding,  that  ye  might  walk  worthy 
of  the  Lord  unto  all  pleasing,  being  fruitful  in  every  good  work,  and  in- 
creasing in  the  knowledge  of  God. — Saint  Paul. 

"The  old  order  change th,  yielding  place  to  new, 
And  God  fulfills  himself  in  many  ways, 
Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world." 

Science  represents  truth,  sanity,  disinterestedness,  frankness,  devo- 
tion, accurate  observation,  and  correct  thinking.  It  has  fashioned  an 
incomparable  method  without  which  we  can  do  nothing  aright.  Re- 
ligion represents  faith,  aspiration,  progress,  poetry,  discontent  with  the 
present,  consecration,  love  of  God  and  love  of  man,  self-denial,  self-sacrifice. 
One  does  not  have  to  reflect  long  to  perceive  that  these  precious  and 
holy  things  are  both  of  God,  or  to  see  in  how  many  ways  one  can  help 
and  serve  the  other.  .  .  .  What  we  want  is  not  mere  tolerance,  not  the 
grudging  assent  on  the  part  of  the  one  to  the  existence  and  ideals  of  the 
other,  but  the  application  of  scientific  method  to  the  problem  of  religion 
and  the  ennobling  of  science  by  the  religious  spirit. — Dr.  Elwood 
Worcester. 


56 


CHAPTER  IV 

RATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS 

The  unceasing  growth  of  knowledge  and  the  steady 
expansion  of  thought  are  resistless  revisionary  forces. 
At  first  thought  it  might  seem  incongruous  that  en- 
lightened reason  could  ever  be  the  agent  of  uncertainty 
and  bewilderment  to  the  Christian  mind.  But,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  reason  has  been  the  great  intellectual 
and  social  disturber  of  the  ages.  Reason  in  order  to 
secure  for  itself  sure  standing  ground  has  always  had 
to  contend  with  aeonic  unreason.  Rational  progress  has 
been  secured  only  at  the  cost  of  overcoming  obstacles 
enshrined  in  both  custom  and  tradition. 

The  evolutionist  tells  us  that  long  before  man  was 
a  reasonable  being  he  was  an  emotional  animal.  For 
dateless  ages  he  was  far  more  governed  by  his  appetites, 
his  impulses,  and  emotions  than  by  any  law  born  of 
thought.  As  tribal  relations  developed  there  grew  up 
certain  usages  which  hardened  into  custom,  the  observ- 
ance of  which,  in  the  common  interests  of  the  tribe, 
was  made  obligatory  upon  all.  The  acts  so  consecrated 
were,  by  general  consensus,  adjudged  to  be  for  the  com- 
mon good,  and  hence  in  effect  were  accorded  the  sacred- 
ness  of  law.  Acts  which,  by  the  same  general  test, 
were  counted  injurious  were  put  under  taboo,  were  for- 
bidden. It  was  thus  that  the  savage  man  first  acquired 
his  sense  of  right  and  wrong.     He  did  right  when  his 

-57 


58        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

conduct  conformed  to  the  serviceable  custom  of  his 
tribe.  He  did  wrong  when  he  committed  the  act  tabooed, 
the  injurious  act.  Thus  the  first  ethical  sense  of -prim- 
itive man  sprang  from  the  recognition  of  social  neces- 
sities. 

Whether  this  theory  is  accepted  or  rejected  matters 
little  so  far  as  real  history  is  concerned.  Nothing  is 
historically  clearer  than  that  the  knowledge  of  the  most 
knowing  has  in  large  part  been  reached  by  slow  processes, 
every  step  of  which  has  encountered  barriers  erected 
by  some  ancient  custom,  prejudice,  or  superstition. 
Custom  has  been  the  despot  of  the  ages.  It  is  such 
to-day.  Its  power  in  society  is  well  voiced  in  the  fa- 
miliar saying  that  "One  might  as  well  be  out  of  the 
world  as  out  of  the  fashion."  At  this  writing  the  "hobble 
skirt"  is  in  vogue.  As  a  fashion  it  is  really  so  ultra  that 
many  sensible  women  have  entered  a  league  of  revolt 
against  its  decrees.  But  nevertheless  it  parades  itself 
in  great  numbers  and  show  upon  the  avenues.  It  is 
a  fashion  which  cannot  plead  for  itself  a  moral,  even 
if  it  may  an  economic,  defense.  But  it  is  one  to  which 
multitudes  of  women  have  succumbed,  a  majority  of 
whom,  five  years  ago,  would  have  been  "inexpress- 
ibly shocked"  to  see  any  one  of  their  sisters  on  the 
streets  in  a  costume  like  that  in  which  they  themselves 
now  unhesitatingly  appear.  Imitation  is  a  factor  of 
marked  influence  in  collective  social  life,  and  it  is  on 
this  principle  that  particular  styles,  even  in  clothes, 
which  ought  to  be  impossible,  come  to  assert  the  tyranny 
of  custom. 

But  what  is  true  in  the  minor  matter  of  costumes  is 


RATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  59 

far  more  bindingly  true  in  the  realms  of  creed  and  tra- 
dition. The  tendency  of  the  great  masses  of  men,  the 
tendency  of  all  men  indeed,  is  just  to  perpetuate  in  their 
own  lives  beliefs  and  customs  as  transmitted  to  them 
by  their  fathers.  There  has  been  handed  down,  well- 
nigh  intact,  from  antiquities,  nobody  knows  how  great, 
whole  volumes  of  folklore  containing  all  mixtures  of 
absurdities,  superstitions,  myths,  fables — mixtures  that 
might  have  been  brewed  in  the  cauldrons  of  Macbeth 's 
witches.  And  there  are  many  among  us  who  familiarly 
quote  these  things  as  talismanic  of  the  weather,  of  crops, 
of  weddings,  or  of  anything  that  might  happen  in  do- 
mestic or  social  life.  Let  it  be  granted  that  many  who 
indulge  in  this  kind  of  pastime  have  little  or  no  faith 
in  the  validity  of  the  things  which  they  repeat.  The 
significant  thing  is  that  the  collective  mind  at  any  stage 
in  its  history  could  have  invented  and  formulated  so 
many  mental  nostrums,  and  the  greater  wonder  is  that 
these  things  should  be  perpetuated  in  the  memory  and 
thought-habit  of  succeeding  generations. 

The  evolution  of  superstitious  thought  has  been  much 
studied.  It  is  well  known  that  in  prescientific  ages 
the  unexplained  phenomena  of  nature  contributed  in- 
definitely to  inspire  the  human  mind  with  a  sense  of 
awe  and  mystery.  These  were  ages  in  which  ghosts 
and  witches  abounded,  when  Satan  in  Protean  forms 
insidiously  stole  into  the  haunts  of  men.  The  human 
imagination  was  at  once  stimulated  and  depressed  by 
the  combined  sensations  of  hope  and  fear,  of  faith  and 
perplexity.  There  was  a  weird  sense  of  spiritual  phe- 
nomena, not  all  benign,  pervasive  of  environment.    Many 


6o        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

events  were  charged  to  supernatural  causes.  The  more 
mysterious  the  event  the  more  certain  was  it  to  be 
connected  with  some  occult  movement  of  Providence. 
Nature,  to  the  primitive  man,  furnished  ubiquitous 
provocation  for  the  invention  of  superstitious  beliefs. 

The  Christian  religion  in  itself,  measured  in  its  own 
terms,  is  infinitely  removed  from  a  religion  of  super- 
stition. But  all  through  the  centuries  multitudes  of 
its  adherents  have  been  largely  imbued  with  super- 
stition. These  shared  the  common  notions  of  their 
times.  They  inevitably  mingled  their  superstitions  with 
their  religious  faith.  And  so  it  has  easily  and  certainly 
resulted  that  the  Church  itself  has  been  a  channel  through 
which  many  false  views  of  both  nature  and  Providence 
have  come  down  to  our  times.  Buckle,  for  instance, 
in  his  History  of  Civilization,  directs  many  of  his  most 
caustic  paragraphs  against  the  Church  of  Scotland — 
the  Church  in  the  land  of  David  Hume  and  Sir  Walter 
Scott — as  being  a  very  nursery  of  superstitious  beliefs. 

Nor  should  all  this  be  to  the  modern  mind  either  a 
source  of  wonder  or  of  censure.  Before  the  advent 
of  science — and  the  most  fruitful  science  is  hardly  older 
than  some  men  now  living — the  phenomena  of  nature 
were  interpreted  by  the  imagination  rather  than  by 
methods  of  ascertained  law.  The  imagination  made  its 
appeal  far  more  largely  to  mystery  than  to  knowledge, 
and  hence  could  not  well  be  other  than  a  fruitful  mother 
of  false  notions  and  superstitious  beliefs.  Christianity, 
in  its  New  Testament  character,  was,  of  course,  never 
responsible  for  the  burden  of  error  thus  carried  in  the 
popular  mind.     But  Christianity  could  not  escape  the 


RATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  61 

evil  mixture  of  false  views  which  its  subjects  so  uni- 
versally associated  even  with  their  religious  beliefs. 

Now,  when  it  is  remembered  that  conservatism  is 
not  only  one  of  the  most  permanent  but  one  of  the  most 
controlling  forces  governing  human  thought  and  conduct, 
it  cannot  be  a  subject  of  wonder  that  reason  in  its  con- 
flict for  a  rational  interpretation  of  the  world  has  en- 
countered vast  obstacles  from  inherited  and  cherished 
errors  and  superstitions.  Conservatism  has  ever  been 
sovereign  in  the  world  of  common  thought.  In  the 
ecclesiastical  world  this  rule  has  been  so  secure,  has 
been  so  popularly  approved,  that  he  has  always  been 
the  exceptional  man  whose  voice  was  raised  for  a  new 
departure.  This  man,  if  he  is  not  too  large  of  girth, 
or  too  persistent,  may  be  borne  with.  He  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  freak,  or  a  harmless  fanatic.  But  if  he  be 
a  Wesley,  he  will  be  mobbed  in  the  street;  if  he  be  a 
Luther,  the  princes  and  councilors  of  empire  will  sum- 
mon him  to  trial,  and  the  Pope  will  issue  a  bull  of  excom- 
munication against  him.  We  may  not  forget  that  the 
rulers  of  the  Jewish  Church  hunted  Christ  to  his  cross 
because  they  regarded  him  as  a  dangerous  heretic. 

If  we  survey  the  whole  world  of  thought  and  action, 
if  we  review  the  entire  history  of  progress,  with  this 
thought  in  view,  we  shall  be  more  than  ever  impressed 
that  only  the  exceptional  man  advances  beyond  the 
great  routine.  China,  with  its  four  hundred  million 
population,  until  just  now  has  stood  for  centuries  a 
huge,  unprogressive  civilization.  Why?  Simply  because 
from  immemorial  time  every  generation  has  repeated  the 
thoughts,   acts,   and  experiences  of  its  predecessor.     A 


62        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

certain  stereotyped  habit  of  life  has  stamped  itself  into 
the  very  fiber  and  customs  of  the  people.  Against  it 
has  been  trained  the  heaviest  gunnery  of  Western  ideals, 
and  yet  at  this  very  hour  the  outer  walls  of  Chinese 
conservatism  are  only  slightly  breached  here  and  there. 

Yet  among  people  who  imagine  themselves  as  in  the 
van  of  modern  progress  there  are  whole  colonies  charac- 
terized by  an  unyielding  and  unmoving  conservatism  of 
much  the  same  quality  as  that  of  the  Chinese  nation. 
How  many  of  all  we  know  are  there  who  analyze  great 
problems  for  themselves?  How  many  are  there  who 
invent  new  implements  of  material  progress?  How 
many  are  there  who  make  great  scientific  discoveries? 
How  many  are  there  who  in  the  very  vital  realm  of 
religious  knowledge  and  experience  are  not  moving  in 
the  same  beaten  pathways  as  their  fathers  before  them? 
Or,  how  many  are  there  who,  if  challenged,  would  be 
able  to  render  clear  and  convincing  reasons,  for  instance, 
for  their  views  of  the  Bible,  or  for  the  entire  assortment 
of  convictions  which  they  so  religiously  hold? 

Many  millions  of  communicants  are  included  in  the 
membership  of  the  great  Greek  and  Roman  Churches. 
But  it  is  the  definite  policy  of  these  organizations  to 
discourage  among  the  laity  independent  investigation  of 
religious  questions.  The  Church,  or,  rather,  the  priestly 
oligarchy,  claims  so  authoritatively  to  have  defined  all 
articles  of  faith  as  to  make  it  unnecessary  for  the  lay 
mind  to  vex  itself  with  such  matters.  The  very  name 
"Protestantism"  implies  dissent,  cleavage,  from  the  long 
heredity  of  usage  and  belief  as  maintained  in  the  older 
Catholicism.     But   it   is   far   from   the   universal   habit 


RATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  63 

of  Protestants  to  protest.  The  majorities  accept  their 
doctrines  as  they  do  their  clothes,  as  ready-made  articles. 
The  overshadowing  fact  is  that  men  viewed  en  masse 
are  ancestral  in  their  habits.  We  are  what  we  are  largely 
because  of  the  homes  in  which  we  were  born.  Heredity 
has  put  its  stamp  upon  us.  Our  deeper  and  controlling 
habits  have  been  largely  shaped  by  reactions  from  our 
early  domestic  and  social  environments.  The  philosophy 
of  the  most  general  beliefs  is  quite  truthfully  expressed 
in  the  lines  wrought  out  by  Henry  Sidgwick  in  his  sleep: 

We  think  so  because  all  others  think  so; 

Or  because — or  because — after  all,  we  do  think  so; 

Or  because  we  were  told  so,  and  think  we  must  think  so; 

Or  because  we  once  thought  so,  and  still  think  we  think  so; 

Or  because,  having  thought  so,  we  think  we  still  think  so. 

Now,  all  this,  of  course,  is  not  to  deny  the  sincerity 
nor  to  invalidate  the  Christian  goodness  of  multitudes 
whose  thinking,  so  far  as  it  goes,  is  well-nigh  purely 
traditional.  But  it  all  does  emphasize  the  necessity, 
if  there  is  to  be  real  progress  for  mankind,  of  better 
mental  processes.  If  there  is  to  be  a  larger  grasp  on 
truth,  if  there  is  to  be  clearer  intellectual  apprehension 
of  the  world  around  us,  if  the  life  of  men  is  to  be  en- 
riched by  great  accessions  of  new  knowledge,  then,  it 
is  necessary  for  somebody  at  least  to  do  some  original 
thinking. 

Traditional  views  are  not  to  be  condemned  simply 
because  they  are  traditional.  There  are  two  types  of 
traditional  thinking.  The  one  covers  all  that  class 
which  has  had  a  long  tenure  in  human  thought,  but  the 
assumptions  of  which  do  not  prove  truthful.  Many 
old  and  cherished  views  have  not  been  able  to  abide 


64        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

the  tests  of  scientific  examination.  Once,  to  the  common 
belief,  the  world  was  simply  a  round  flat  disc,  a  spread- 
out  plane.  This  belief  is  no  longer  possible.  The 
Ptolemaic  astronomy  once  commanded  assent  from  the 
most  learned  minds.  But  after  a  false  sway  of  four- 
teen centuries  this  system  received  its  deathblow  at 
the  hands  of  a  Bohemian  monk,  an  original  thinker,  a 
patient  investigator,  who  not  only  clearly  demonstrated 
its  fundamental  falsities,  but  displaced  the  system  by  a 
new  astronomy. 

False  traditional  views  have  placed  many  vicious 
interpretations  upon  the  Bible.  The  science  of  literary 
and  historical  criticism  has  by  no  means  been  alone, 
or  chiefly,  responsible  for  enforced  changes  in  biblical 
interpretation.  It  was  once  a  belief  universally  and 
profoundly  accepted  in  Christian  thought  that  God 
literally  in  six  days  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth 
with  all  that  in  them  is.  It  was  not  the  higher  criticism, 
but  geology,  a  first-hand  study  of  nature's  formative 
processes,  that  forced  the  abandonment  of  this  view. 
It  has  been  just  as  positively  believed,  on  assumed 
biblical  authority,  that  man  has  existed  on  the  earth 
for  only  about  six  thousand  years.  Indubitable  scientific 
discovery  has  also  rendered  this  view  untenable. 
Archaeology  distinctly  confirms  the  conclusion  that 
elaborate  civilizations  existed  upon  the  earth  at  a  period 
far  antedating  six  thousand  years  ago. 

A  dogmatic  misconstruction  of  the  Bible  has  been 
responsible  for  much  disgraceful  controversy  with,  and 
many  humiliating  theological  defeats  from,  scientific 
authorities.     Science,   in  the  very  nature  of  its  quest, 


RATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  65 

is  often  called  upon  to  modify  or  to  revise  its  working 
hypotheses,  but  it  is  always  in  pursuit  of  verified  results, 
and  when  it  reaches  these  it  can  suffer  no  defeats.  The 
champions  of  unscientific  dogma  by  their  noisy  attacks 
upon,  and  their  sullen  retreats  from,  the  assured  demon- 
strations of  science,  have  furnished  one  of  the  most 
humiliating  chapters  in  the  history  of  theological  thought. 
Happily,  to  the  credit  of  modern  intellect,  and  for  the 
advancement  of  a  sane  faith,  the  Bible  is  now  more  and 
more  receiving  an  interpretation  which  does  not  put 
it  in  conflict  with  scientific  truth. 

A  second  type  of  traditional  views  is  of  the  kind  that 
expresses  truth,  after  much  truth,  but  not  all  the  truth 
knowable  of  the  subject  involved  has  been  ascertained. 
This  type  is  fundamental.  It  furnishes  conditions  indis- 
pensable to  progress  in  knowledge.  At  least  it  furnishes 
initial  and  essential  stepping-stones  in  the  direction  of 
final  truth.  Perfected  knowledge  is  the  result  of  evolu- 
tionary processes.  The  perfected  type  of  the  Corliss 
engine  is  a  marvel  of  ingenuity.  But  it  is  not  the  product 
of  any  one  brain,  nor  of  any  one  generation.  It  repre- 
sents not  only  the  fundamental  principle  adopted  by 
James  Watt  in  his  original  patent  of  1769,  but  the  finest 
coordinated  results  of  all  revisions  and  improvements 
in  construction  which  have  been  contributed  through 
nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  inventive  work. 
This  history  may  illustrate  how  old  facts  are  fundamental 
to  the  most  perfect  present-day  knowledge.  The  prin- 
ciple has  equal  application  to  many  traditional  views 
which  have  come  to  us  from  a  remote  past. 

Nothing   is    to   be    said    against    traditional    thought 


66        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

in  itself  considered.  It  may  be  as  expressive  of  truth 
as  any  matter  of  scientific  verification,  or  it  may  con- 
tain features  of  truth  which  condition  indispensably 
further  knowledge  on  a  given  subject  of  inquiry.  The 
difficulty  with  many  traditional  minds  is  that  the  truth 
which  they  hold  is  with  them  a  thing  of  arrested  develop- 
ment. They  are  content  with  a  fragment,  a  rudiment, 
in  place  of  the  fully  developed  product. 

But  this  mental  habit — the  habit,  alas!  of  multitudes 
of  good  people — in  itself  gives  poor  promise  for  the 
future.  It  is  not  the  habit  from  which  are  begotten 
the  pioneers  of  advanced  movements  in  Church  or  in 
state.  The  mind  that  has  dropped  into  a  dogmatic 
and  contented  mood  in  the  possession  of  things  received 
only  from  the  past  is  a  mind  with  its  vision  closed  to 
the  future.  It  is  as  though  the  twentieth  century, 
instead  of  looking  forward  for  new  intellectual  and  moral 
conquests,  for  new  spiritual  dominions,  were  called  upon 
to  be  content  with  the  standards,  the  ideals,  and  the 
partial  knowledge  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  crea- 
tion of  Watt's  engine  was  a  great  achievement.  It 
immortalized  the  name  of  its  inventor.  This  original 
invention  embodied  principles  of  construction  which  all 
subsequent  builders  have  had  to  observe.  But  if  the 
mechanical  world  had  settled  down  to  the  conclusion 
that  Watt's  engine  was  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  construction, 
then  the  wizardry  of  that  creative  machinery,  steam 
and  electric-sped,  which  in  our  day  has  multiplied  the 
productive  power  of  human  industry  a  thousandfold, 
would  be  to  us  unknown.  The  fact  that  to-day  the  seas 
are  navigated  by  palatial  fleets,  that  the  lightning  express 


RATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  67 

leaps  on  its  path  of  steel,  and  that  the  roar  of  mighty 
factories  fills  our  cities,  is  all  due  to  continuous  inventive 
progress.  Upon  the  original  achievement  there  have 
been  continuously  superinduced  new  improvements,  new 
adjustments,  new  combinations,  new  potentialities,  until 
there  has  been  evolved  the  majestic  leviathan  which 
to-day  easily  and  without  weariness  does  the  work  of 
a  multitude  of  men. 

I  take  it  that  this  history  is  but  a  parable  of  unlimited 
and  undeveloped  potentialities  which  inhere  in  all  the 
social,  intellectual,  and  moral  life  of  the  race.  An 
imperative  need  is  that  all  departments  of  thought  and 
motive  shall  come  under  the  direction  of  rational  rule. 
From  immemorial  time  the  emotional  side  of  human 
nature  has  been  at  the  front.  All  the  mysteries  of  life 
itself  and  of  outlying  nature  have  been  appropriated 
by  and  interpreted  through  the  emotions.  This  has 
given  room,  and  especially  in  connection  with  man's 
religious  instincts,  for  innumerable  vagaries  of  interpreta- 
tion, for  the  rise  of  endless  superstitions,  for  the  ghost 
dances  that  have  haunted  the  night,  for  magic,  for 
bogies,  and  countless  irrationalities  which  appeal  to  and 
overawe  the  credulous  mind.  The  play  of  nature's 
mysteries  upon  the  untrained  emotions  has  always 
given  the  medicine  man,  the  soothsayer,  and  the  astrol- 
oger an  awesome  rank  in  primitive  society.  The  older 
customs,  philosophies,  and  creeds  were  largely  infused 
with  that  speculative  and  uncertain  quality  which  had 
its  source  in  an  emotional  rather  than  a  rational  inter- 
pretation of  the  universe.  The  custom  may  have  har- 
dened into  law,  the  philosophy  accepted  as  an  authority, 


68        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

the  creed  most  positive  in  utterance,  but  they  all  alike 
asserted  their  sway  over  a  prescientific  habit  of  mind. 

Truth  would  require  the  admission  that  in  no  realm 
has  the  irrational  wrought  sadder  mischief  than  in  that 
of  religious  thought.  Religion  has  so  much  to  do  with 
unseen  phenomena,  with  a  supernatural  world,  its  divin- 
ities are  so  out  of  sight,  and  their  movements  and  pur- 
poses so  hidden  in  mystery,  as  always  to  make  it  easy 
for  the  credulous  and  imaginative  mind  to  associate  with 
religious  thought  all  sorts  of  elusive  notions.  The  great 
superstitions  of  the  world  have  nearly  all  of  them  been 
domesticated  in  religious  thought.  This  statement  does 
not  apply  to  Christianity  at  its  original  sources.  Christ, 
let  it  be  reverently  said,  was  the  sanest  of  all  religious 
teachers.  It  might  be  said  that  he  was  strictly  scientific 
in  his  methods.  In  his  teaching,  parables,  and  illus- 
trations he  went  direct  to  nature.  He  enforced  his 
lessons  by  objects  most  familiar  to  the  experience  and 
observation  of  those  whom  he  taught.  But  with  the 
passage  of  time,  the  pure  and  simple  faith  of  the  gospel, 
like  a  river  flowing  down  from  its  pure  source,  became 
much  colored  and  corrupted  by  the  superstitions  and 
errors  of  the  ages  through  which  it  passed.  No  truth, 
however  perfect  in  itself,  can  be  lifted  higher  than  the 
highest  ideals  of  its  interpreters.  The  most  perfect 
truth  ever  uttered  will  itself  appear  a  distorted  thing 
when  handled  only  by  men  mentally  and  morally  astig- 
matized. 

The  truth  is  that  Christianity  cannot  have  its  fairest 
opportunity,  can  never  realize  its  rightful  supremacy, 
until  it  makes  its  advent  into  a  rationallv  ordered  society. 


RATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  69 

The  most  perfect  age  of  science,  when  it  shall  come, 
will  prove  the  age  of  most  triumphant  faith.  Aside 
from  the  supreme  mission  of  the  gospel,  the  most  vital 
and  hopeful  prophecy  of  the  present  is  contained  in  the 
steady  and  sure  progress  of  scientific  thought.  Science, 
in  a  very  saving  sense,  is  rationalizing  the  age.  Its 
reign  will  be  a  reign  of  sanity.  Science  stands  voucher 
for  nothing  but  truth.  It  insists  in  its  every  process 
upon  verification.  In  its  own  spirit  it  is  never  dogmatic 
about  its  hypotheses.  If  it  cannot  test  its  question 
by  one  hypothesis,  that  hypothesis  is  abandoned  and 
another  resorted  to  until  the  result  sought  is  found. 
Science  rests  in  no  theories,  no  professions.  It  rests 
in  nothing  save  the  verified  result.  In  its  character 
simply  as  an  exorciser  science  is  a  supreme  benefaction 
to  mankind.  It  is  gradually  but  surely  banishing  from 
the  human  imagination  ghosts,  witches,  hobgoblins, 
bogies,  evil  shades,  demons,  which  have  for  so  long 
haunted  and  frightened  the  spirit  of  ordinary  mortals. 

Science  is  a  great  clarifier  of  thought,  a  great  revealer 
of  knowledge.  It  refuses  to  allow  myth  to  pass  for 
anything  but  itself.  It  strips  fable  of  every  meaning 
except  its  own.  It  does  not  allow  itself  to  be  misled 
by  tricks  of  speech  or  figures  of  rhetoric.  It  insists 
upon  knowing  the  exact  truth.  It  has  the  finest  sense 
for  detecting  plagiarism  and  imposition.  From  the 
world  of  faith  it  is  banishing  superstitions  and  false 
traditions.  Science  makes  no  protest  against  the  healthy 
artistic  imagination,  nor  against  its  creations  as  seen 
on  canvas  or  in  statue.  No  more  does  it  make  protest 
against  the  legitimate  life  of  faith  and  worship.     But 


7o        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

it  does  strip  faith  of  all  false  appendages.  It  insists 
that  religion  divested  of  error  and  superstition  shall 
go  forth  upon  its  mission  clad  only  in  its  own  intrinsic 
perfections,  radiant  in  its  own  beauty. 

Science  is  the  great  builder  of  modern  civilization. 
It  is  the  creator  of  the  modern  mercantile  world.  It 
has  gridironed  the  continents  with  railroads,  has  peopled 
the  seas  with  steamsped  fleets,  and  has  corraled  the 
whole  world  into  a  close  community  of  common  intel- 
ligence and  interests  by  lightning  telegraphy.  It  has 
created  the  new  industrial  world,  transferred  the  burden 
of  industry  from  the  strain  of  human  muscle  to  machin- 
ery, thereby  multiplying  the  products  of  consumption 
a  thousandfold.  It  has  created  and  systematized  the 
agencies  of  intelligence  for  every  department  of  human 
knowledge.  The  spade  of  the  archaeologist  has  uncovered 
the  remains  of  most  ancient  civilizations,  and  has  so 
unearthed  the  data  of  their  customs,  laws,  literatures, 
and  religions  as  to  enable  the  modern  scholar  to  know 
more  of  their  history  than  did  their  very  contemporaries 
of  the  far-off  ages.  We  may  not  know  more  specifically 
of  Athens  than  did  Pericles,  but  of  the  ancient  world 
as  a  whole  we  have  a  vastly  more  perfect  knowledge 
than  was  ever  possible  to  him.  Science  makes  us  con- 
temporaneous with  all  ages.  And  what  is  true  of  the 
ancient  world  is  immeasurably  more  true  of  our  knowl- 
edge as  applied  to  the  civilizations  of  to-day.  There 
is  no  nation  so  remote  or  obscure  as  not  to  be  visualized 
to  common  knowledge.  Much  is  known  of  the  dwellers 
of  uttermost  islands,  of  the  dwarfs  in  African  wildernesses, 
and   of  the  most  isolated   tribes  in   the  northernmost 


RATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  71 

wilds  of  America.  The  great  civilizations  of  the  Orient 
are  no  longer  remote  from  the  nations  of  the  West. 
The  ends  of  the  earth  are  bound  together  in  the  closest 
interests  of  mutual  commerce.  The  great  universities 
of  America  hold  endowed  chairs  of  the  Asiatic  languages 
and  literatures.  The  philosophies  and  cults  of  the 
East,  as  set  forth  by  native  masters,  are  luminously- 
translated  into  the  Western  languages.  The  field  of 
universal  religion  is  exhaustively  studied.  The  science 
of  comparative  religion  has  yielded  a  vast  wealth  of 
information  concerning  God's  dealings  with  mankind, 
has  greatly  revised  many  earlier  notions  of  Christian 
people  relating  to  the  heathen  world,  and  has  done 
much  to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Christian  teacher  for 
successful  work  among  pagan  peoples.  The  history, 
the  philosophies,  the  ethnologies  of  all  races  are  now 
accessible  to  the  student. 

The  scientific  knowledge  of  nature  is  a  modern  achieve- 
ment. The  telescope  has  carried  the  vision  of  the  ob- 
server into  the  infinities  and  has  annihilated  the  boun- 
daries of  the  physical  universe.  Microscopy  reveals  to 
our  knowledge  a  cosmos  peopled  with  infinite  families 
of  minute  and  marvelous  life  both  unknown  and  un- 
dreamed of  in  the  prescientific  times.  The  processes 
of  atonic  world-building  have  been  traced,  and  are  trans- 
lated by  our  cosmic  and  geological  sciences.  Repre- 
sentative fauna  and  flora  of  all  strata  and  ages,  so  far 
as  accessible,  are  on  exhibition  in  our  museums  of  natural 
history.  The  animal  life  of  land  and  sea  has  been  cap- 
tured, studied,  classified. 

In    these    later    days    man    himself,    physiologically, 


72        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

psychologically,  in  everything  covering  the  entire  range 
of  his  being,  has  become  the  subject  of  most  intensive 
study.  The  natural  development  of  childhood,  the 
proper  pedagogy  of  child-training,  the  processes  of 
adult  minds,  normal  and  abnormal — indeed,  everything 
included  in  the  range  of  man's  mental  history — all  is 
reduced  to  a  rational  philosophy.  There  is  no  longer 
left  in  human  nature  even  a  playground  for  the  witches. 
Man  in  all  his  diversified  life  sees  himself  reflected  as 
never  before  in  the  mirror  of  his  own  science. 

In  times  comparatively  recent,  much  has  been  said 
and  written  with  reference  to  an  assumed  antagonism 
between  science  and  religion.  This  assumption,  happily, 
is  losing  place  in  clear  thought.  Science  proceeds  on 
the  basis  of  verified  fact.  Religion,  it  is  assumed,  is 
largely  a  matter  of  faith.  But  fundamentally,  as  be- 
tween the  verified  bases  of  science  and  the  effective 
faith  of  religion,  there  is  not  the  real  difference  which 
many  have  imagined.  Even  the  verifications  of  religion 
are  experimental.  Religious  faith  tests  itself  by  the 
acceptance  of  hypotheses.  In  Christian  life  the  knowl- 
edge, the  experience  of  the  truth  comes  from  the  doing 
of  the  revealed  duty.  The  experience  of  the  saints 
keeps  the  Christian  faith  alive.  Christ  living,  and 
constantly  witnessing  himself,  in  the  hearts  of  his  people, 
is  the  one  superlative  fact  which  makes  Christianity 
a  growing  and  irresistible  power  in  the  earth.  Of  course, 
aside  from  truth  confirmed  by  experience,  there  are 
important  doctrines  of  Christianity  which  appeal  to 
faith  in  a  way  not  admitting  of  present  experimental 
verification.     But   such  doctrines   all   stand  in  rational 


RATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  73 

harmony  with  the  verified  truths  of  faith,  and  so  may 
be  reasonably  accepted.  It  is,  however,  true  that  the 
faith  which  we  call  Christian  would  itself  perish  had  it 
no  corroborations  in  the  living  experiences  of  believers. 

Science  also  shows  its  faith  by  its  obedience.  In 
order  to  possess  itself  of  the  truth  it  submits  itself  with 
all  carefulness  to  the  test  of  hypothesis.  And,  if  one 
hypothesis  fails,  it  perseveringly  resorts  to  another 
and  to  another  test  until  the  truth  sought  is  not  only 
discovered,  but  demonstrated.  And  so  it  may  be  said, 
though  obviously  from  different  bases,  that  both  reli- 
gion and  science  are  subjects  of  faith,  and  both  are  exper- 
imental. The  quest  of  science  can  be  conducted  only 
by  the  requisition  of  many  qualities  which  in  themselves 
are  essential  to  the  Christian  life.  "Science  requires 
patience,  diligence,  accuracy,  honesty,  self-control,  self- 
forgetf ulness,  willingness  to  take  risks  and  to  endure."1 

In  service  rendered  science  is  proving  itself  more  and 
more  a  beneficent  ally  of  Christianity.  If  to  bring  to 
the  world  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is  the  mission  of  Chris- 
tianity— a  kingdom  of  brotherhood,  of  righteousness,  of 
mutual  service  and  helpfulness,  of  sanity,  of  truth  and 
enlightenment  among  men — then  science  may  be  justly 
rated  as  one  of  the  most  effective  agencies  of  such  a 
consummation. 

Among  the  distinctive  services  of  science  none  are 
worthy  of  greater  emphasis  than  the  part  it  has  played 
in  promoting  the  spirit  of  mental  honesty  among  men. 
Science,  while  insisting  that  no  mystery  is  too  sacred 
for   its   investigation,    no   obscurity   too   formidable   for 

1  Ames,  The  Psychology  of  Religious  Experience,  p.  412. 


74        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

its  undertaking,  has  absolutely  no  tolerance  for  any- 
motive  or  method  employed  in  conscious  deviation 
from  the  truth.  Doubtless  many,  known  as  scientists, 
have  on  occasion  and  in  the  name  of  science,  appeared 
as  special  pleaders.  But  by  so  much  they  have  been 
unscientific.  The  supreme  quest  of  science  is  truth 
itself.     But  truth  responds  only  to  truthful  processes. 

The  general  trend  of  scientific  service  is  totally  in 
the  direction  of  the  world's  betterment.  For  the  farmer 
it  analyzes  his  soils,  indicates  their  required  fertilizers, 
and  enables  him  to  multiply  their  productiveness.  To 
the  stock-raiser  it  furnishes  the  eugenics  for  breeding 
the  choicest  types  of  horses  and  cattle.  It  floods  the 
darkness  of  the  city  with  electric  lighting,  sends  pure 
water  for  domestic  uses  into  every  dwelling,  and  by 
methods  conserving  the  general  health  discharges  the 
city's  sewage  to  the  seas.  As  heretofore  indicated,  it 
has  manifolded  the  productiveness  of  labor  by  the  crea- 
tion of  machinery.  In  the  street  car  and  the  auto- 
mobile it  has  provided  available  and  expeditious  methods 
of  local  transportation  for  all  classes.  It  gives  promise 
of  early  solving  the  problem  of  aerial  navigation.  In- 
deed, in  the  entire  realm  of  instrumental  utilities  there 
seems  hardly  a  conceivable  need  which  has  not  met 
with  response  from  scientific  skill. 

There  is  no  department  in  which  the  beneficent  and 
healing  mission  of  science  is  more  manifest  than  in 
that  of  surgery  and  medicine.  It  enables  the  surgeon 
to  perform  miracles  of  physical  relief  and  cure.  It 
has  driven  the  scourge  of  yellow  fever  from  cities  like 
Havana  and   New  Orleans,   and  has  banished  typhoid 


RATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  75 

from  the  armies.  The  Panama  Canal  belt,  a  region 
of  natural  pestilence  and  peril  to  life,  it  has  transformed 
into  one  of  the  most  sanitary  of  habitable  zones.  It 
has  hunted  the  germs  of  contagious  and  fatal  diseases, 
discovered  their  antitoxins,  and  confidently  predicts  the 
day  as  not  far  distant  when  these  great  infections  may 
be  no  longer  feared. 

Science,  in  all  fields  of  its  work,  is  serving  human 
interests,  widening  knowledge,  extending  its  sway  over 
natural  forces,  and  establishing  for  man  in  all  relations 
a  rational  view  of  life.  Its  forces  are  active  in  all  fields 
that  attract  human  interest.  In  Africa,  in  the  Orient, 
or  wherever,  on  earth  or  sea,  there  are  unique  objects 
of  study,  there  some  intrepid  scientist,  with  gun  and 
camera,  or  whatever  outfit  required,  is  doing  his  work. 
Experts  will  continue  to  push  their  investigations  into 
all  fields  and  into  every  department  until  nature  has 
surrendered  her  last  revealable  secret,  and  the  knowledge 
thus  gained  will  be  more  and  more  the  common  wealth 
and  the  common  sanity  of  mankind. 

Scientific  knowledge  will  be  regulative  of  the  future. 
Philosophy,  enriched  and  aided  by  this  knowledge, 
while  broad  enough  to  embrace  all  the  practical  phases 
of  thought  and  life,  will  be  rational  and  sane  in  its  proc- 
esses and  conclusions.  Theology,  no  longer  a  system  of 
cheerless  logical  architecture  erected  on  a  basis  of 
arbitrary  assumptions  about  God,  but  feeding  itself 
vitally  on  the  Divine  Fatherhood  as  revealed  in  Jesus 
Christ,  will  come  to  such  coordination  with  the  best 
teachings  of  life  and  experience  as  to  make  most  con- 
vincing appeal  to  enlightened  reason.     The  Bible  itself, 


76        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

under  the  critical  illumination  of  a  constructive  scientific 
spirit,  can  no  longer  be  manipulated  or  monopolistically 
interpreted  in  the  interests  of  any  special  theology  or 
ecclesiasticism.  A  reverent  scientific  criticism  will  yield 
to  the  entire  world  all  that  is  possible  to  be  known  from 
a  literary,  historical,  or  chronological  standpoint  about 
the  Bible.  Biblical  literature  will  be  redeemed  in  pop- 
ular thought  from  all  traditions  which  have  made  of  it 
a  mere  wonder-literature,  a  fetish  to  be  worshiped,  or 
which  have  loaded  it  with  theories  of  inspiration, 
inerrancy,  and  infallibility  which  it  was  never  meant 
to  carry,  and  which  it  has  never  claimed  for  itself. 

The  world  is  moving  into  an  ever-enlarging  enlighten- 
ment. Before  the  increasing  light,  error  and  super- 
stition, all  things  akin  to  astrology,  necromancy,  sooth- 
saying, sorcery,  and  relic-worship,  will  pass  to  the  limbo 
of  a  credulous  and  superseded  age.  It  matters  not 
how  strongly  intrenched  in  past  usages,  how  seemingly 
impregnable  the  organism  in  which  they  dwell,  systems 
and  beliefs  that  are  radically  out  of  harmony  with  the 
world's  growing  enlightenment  must  finally  disappear. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  might  possibly  be  hastily 
concluded  by  some  that  man's  religion  is  destined  to 
be  swallowed  up  in  mere  scientific  thought.  Infinitely 
untrue.  Religiousness  is  the  greatest  fact  of  man's 
being.  With  Sabatier,  it  must  be  said,  "He  is  incurably 
religious."  The  fact  and  importance  of  man's  spiritual 
nature  will  ever  loom  more  largely  upon  the  world's 
thought.  It  would  be  a  poor  comment  on  God's  great 
masterpiece — man — to  assume  that  that  which  in  him 
is  most  Godlike,  his  spirituality,   should  deteriorate  in 


RATIONAL  READJUSTMENTS  77 

proportion  as  his  mind  is  illumined  with  knowledge. 
Tennyson  was  not  less  a  poet  because  he  had  a  sane 
appreciation  of  the  largest  science  of  his  time.  The 
assumption  that  man's  spiritual  nature  must  shine  less 
perfectly  because  his  mind  is  enriched  with  rational 
knowledge  would  be  preposterous.  The  more  valuable 
our  religion  the  more  certain  is  it  to  be  rational.  God  is 
not  a  juggler.  He  who  is  the  Father  of  our  spiritual 
nature  is  also  the  Creator  of  the  mental  and  physical 
laws  which  are  so  fundamental  to  our  very  being. 


BIBLICAL  CRITICISM 


79 


"Teach  me  the  truth,  Lord,  though  it  put  to  flight 
My  fairest  dreams  and  fondest  fancy's  play; 
Teach  me  to  know  the  darkness  from  the  light, 
The  night  from  day." 

At  the  present  time  it  is  no  use  trying  to  kill  modern  views  of  the  Bible. 
If  you  are  going  to  try  to  kill  them,  you  must  kill  scholarship  first.  If 
you  were  to  turn  all  of  us  out  of  our  chairs  in  England,  you  could  not 
find  other  men  with  adequate  scholarship,  holding  different  views  of  the 
Bible,  to  fill  them.— Professor  James  Hope  Moulton. 

As  the  critical  view  of  Scripture  comes  to  its  own,  it  will  be  possible 
for  the  ripe  fruits  of  reverent  Bible  study  to  be  made  accessible  in  a  way 
which  at  present  is  not  possible.  For  my  own  part  I  may  say  that 
criticism  has  never  attracted  me  for  its  own  sake.  The  all-important 
thing  for  the  student  of  the  Bible  is  to  pierce  to  the  core  of  its  meaning. 
Now,  since  it  has  pleased  God  to  give  us  his  revelation  in  the  form  of  a 
history,  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  approach  its  interpretation  by  a  historical 
path.  But  no  history  can  be  scientific,  in  accordance,  that  is,  with  the 
truth  of  things,  unless  it  critically  examines  its  documents  and  the  material 
they  enshrine.  Thus  criticism  becomes  for  the  interpreter  of  Scripture, 
not  a  task  he  may  decline  at  his  will,  but  an  obvious  duty  that  he  dare 
not  shirk. — Dr.  Arthur  S.  Peake. 

The  Scriptures  either  are  or  are  not  fit  subjects  for  scholarship.  If 
they  are  not,  then  all  sacred  scholarship  has  been,  and  is,  a  mistake,  and 
they  are  a  body  of  literature  possessed  of  the  inglorious  distinction  of 
being  incapable  of  being  understood.  If  they  are,  then  the  more  scientific 
the  scholarship  the  greater  its  use  in  the  field  of  Scripture,  and  the  more 
it  is  reverently  exercised  on  a  literature  that  can  claim  to  be  the  preeminent 
sacred  literature  of  the  world  the  more  will  that  literature  be  honored. 
—Principal  A.  M.  Fairbairn. 


80 


CHAPTER  V 
BIBLICAL  CRITICISM 

Intolerance  is  a  spirit  so  easily  harbored  as  almost 
to  make  it  seem  native  to  the  human  mind.  It  shows 
itself  in  all  realms  of  opinion,  in  social  customs,  in  pol- 
itics, in  religion,  but  nowhere  more  so  than  in  religion. 
There  are  those  both  in  and  out  of  the  Church  for  whom 
the  exposition  of  any  truth  in  collision  with  their  fixed 
belief  would  prove  entirely  useless.  The  positiveness  of 
such  minds  in  asserting  their  own  opinions  is  likely 
to  be  equaled  only  by  their  intolerance  of  the  opinions 
of  others. 

There  are  those,  however,  who  fear  that  the  present- 
day  Church  is  largely  shorn  of  spiritual  power  because 
of  the  work  of  "biblical  criticism."  This  view,  however 
invalid,  may  merit  consideration  on  account  of  the 
sincerity  of  those  whom  it  disturbs.  That  the  science 
of  historical  and  literary  criticism,  now  of  secure  stand- 
ing, has  in  recent  decades  had  large  application  in  the 
examination  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  is  too  historic 
to  need  reaffirmation. 

That  the  continuous  publicity,  much  of  it  sheer 
caricature,  which  pro  and  con  has  been  given  to  biblical 
criticism,  has  resulted  in  dislodging  some  minds  from 
their  inherited  views  cannot  be  denied.  The  unsettling 
of  inherited  views  has  always  followed  in  the  wake  of 
progressive  thought.     The  intellectual  world  never  pitches 

8l 


82        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

its  camp  on  new  territory  without  leaving  on  its  trail 
a  certain  contingent  of  mind  whose  mental  repose  has 
been  painfully  disturbed.  When  men  are  thrown  out 
of  their  life-long  ruts  of  thought  by  the  dynamic  of  a 
new,  or  by  a  new  application  of  an  old,  truth,  there  is 
no  known  law  which  will  save  them  from  a  sensation 
of  mental  dislodgment.  The  inevitable  unsettling  of 
cherished  and  restful  beliefs  is  a  part  of  the  price  and 
the  risk  which  the  race  has  always  had  to  assume  in 
its  intellectual  and  moral  advances  into  new  fields  of 
truth.  From  this  viewpoint  the  price  of  biblical  crit- 
icism has  been  costly. 

It  may  not  be  unfitting  that  we  should  briefly  trace 
some  of  the  historic  phases  of  the  critical  movement. 
And  at  the  outset  we  must  remind  ourselves  that  the 
kind  of  criticism  which  has  been  applied  to  the  Bible 
is  precisely  the  same  as  that  which  has  been  applied 
to  all  important  ancient,  and  even  more  modern,  literature. 
The  science  of  criticism  was  not  created  primarily  with 
reference  to  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  they  who  at  offhand  condemn 
the  application  to  the  Bible  of  modern  critical  methods 
are  themselves  not  well  informed  concerning  the  ante- 
cedent conditions  in  the  case.  It  is  to  be  remembered 
that  for  a  thousand  years  prior  to  the  Reformation  the 
people  had  well-nigh  no  access  to  the  Bible.  An  "in- 
fallible" Church  arrogated  to  itself  the  sole  interpreta- 
tion of  this  Book  for  mankind.  Early  in  the  Christian 
centuries,  largely  through  the  influence  of  the  Ante- 
Nicene  Fathers,  the  methods  of  biblical  interpretation 
became  mystical  and  allegorical  to  a  degree  that  prac- 


BIBLICAL  CRITICISM  83 

tically  shrouded  from  human  view  most  of  what  now 
appears  to  us  as  the  plain  sense  of  the  Scriptures. 

The  theological  teaching  of  the  Church  was  not  so 
much  a  reflection  of  Bible  truth  as  it  was  of  patristic 
homilies  and  of  human  interpretation,  a  great  burden 
of  which  in  the  light  of  most  reverent  vision  is  now  seen 
to  be  grotesquely  absurd.  The  literature  of  the  Bible 
was  not  studied  grammatically  nor  in  the  light  of  its 
proper  historic  setting.  The  Bible,  and  with  an  inter- 
pretation adapted  to  the  purpose,  was  principally  used 
to  bolster  and  to  give  sanction  to  the  usages  and  teach- 
ings of  the  Church.  Hedged  in  by  an  artificial  and 
mystical  interpretation  which  largely  disguised  and 
nullified  their  real  message,  a  close  prisoner  in  the  keep- 
ing of  an  infallible  Church,  the  Scriptures  themselves 
had  almost  no  opportunity  to  speak  forth  their  own 
truth.  Such  messages  as  they  purported  to  give  were 
those  of  patristic  allegory  and  mysticism  rather  than 
the  plain  utterances  of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles. 

These  ages,  moreover,  were  characterized  by  a  great 
dearth  of  learning.  Science,  in  the  modern  sense  of 
the  term,  was  well-nigh  unknown.  History  was  a  neg- 
ligible quantity.  The  great  cities  of  the  past  had  fallen 
into  ruin.  The  wide  continent,  for  the  most  part,  was 
divided  between  the  wilderness,  the  rival  camps  of 
feudalism,  and  lawless  marauders.  Even  in  the  Church 
itself  the  man  of  real  learning  was  the  exception.  Among 
bishops  and  priests  alike  there  was  almost  universal 
ignorance  of  the  original  languages  in  which  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  appeared.  While  there  were  other  versions  in 
whole  or  in  part,  yet  for  centuries  the  chief  Bible  in  use, 


84        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

even  in  the  Church,  was  the  Latin  Vulgate — itself  a 
very  defective  version  of  the  original  Scriptures.  The 
first  complete  Greek  Testament  given  to  the  world  was 
that  prepared  by  Erasmus  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
Ignorance,  dense  and  superstitious,  cast  its  dark  shadows 
far  and  near  over  the  entire  continent  of  Europe.  The 
term  "Dark  Ages"  may  have  been  in  some  sense  over- 
worked. But  in  contrast  with  the  intellectual  splendors 
of  our  own  age,  it  would  seem  difficult  to  find  a  more 
fitting  term  by  which  to  describe  the  intellectual  con- 
ditions which  prevailed  in  Europe  for  a  millennium  of 
years  prior  to  the  Reformation. 

Of  the  Church  throughout  these  desolate  ages  it 
should  be  said  that,  however  egregious  and  false  many 
of  its  claims,  however  despotic  its  rule,  however  great 
the  abuses  to  which  it  loaned  its  sanction,  however 
impure  was  much  of  its  guiding  life,  however  perversive 
its  interpretation  of  the  plain  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ — 
yet,  on  the  whole,  the  rule  of  this  Church  over  the  peoples 
of  Europe  through  all  these  dark  and  turbulent  centuries 
must  be  stamped  as  beneficent.  Without  the  reign  of 
the  Church  it  is  impossible  to  surmise  what  would  have 
become  of  the  world  itself.  The  Church  was  immeas- 
urably far  from  ideally  representing  the  spirit  and  mis- 
sion of  its  Master.  But  it  was  the  one  and  only  power 
whose  authority  was  universally  heeded  in  these  ages, 
and  as  no  other  power  it  did  represent  the  authority 
of  heaven,  it  thrust  the  sanction  of  eternal  things  upon 
the  popular  view,  and  as  another  Moses  coming  straight 
from  the  flames  and  thunderings  of  Sinai,  it  held 
over  these  rough  ages  restraints  and  regulations  which 


BIBLICAL  CRITICISM  85 

seemed  to  utter  themselves  as  from  the  very  lips  of 
God. 

The  Church,  for  these  Middle  Ages,  may  not 
unfittingly  be  likened  to  a  big  uniformed  policeman  of 
Providence.  It  wore  the  badges  of  highest  sanction, 
it  embodied  in  itself  the  highest  authority  known  to 
the  human  imagination.  It  carried  at  its  girdle  the 
weapons  of  most  fearful  retribution  against  the  dis- 
obedient, and  it  gave  highest  pledges  of  eternal  safety 
and  reward  to  all  obedient  citizens.  This  policeman 
himself  was  far  from  ideal.  He  was  despotic,  arrogant, 
overbearing,  oftentimes  savagely  misusing  his  authority, 
often  grossly  unjust,  often  under  guise  of  sanctity  com- 
mitting nameless  outrage  against  heaven.  Yet,  on  the 
whole,  we  look  back  upon  him  as  the  one  historic  figure 
without  whose  guiding  hand  the  civilizations  of  the 
Middle  Ages  could  never  have  been  piloted  over  into 
the  rich  heritage  of  our  modern  world. 

Such,  in  general,  was  the  condition  of  Christendom 
until  the  breaking  forth  of  the  Reformation  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  The  Reformation  was  a  widely  con- 
tagious and  powerful  protest  against  the  assumptions, 
the  despotisms,  and  the  corruptions  of  a  Church  which 
for  centuries  had  asserted  a  heaven-ordained  and  in- 
fallible authority  over  the  mind  and  conscience  of  Europe. 
Whatever  else  may  be  said  about  the  Reformation,  it 
is  safe  to  say  that  it  was  the  rock  against  which  were 
fatally  shattered  the  claims  of  an  infallible  papacy. 

But  the  Reformation,  however  great  as  a  movement, 
was  very  far  from  working  the  intellectual  emancipation 
of   the   age.     Even   the  reformers  themselves  remained 


86        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

under  mental  bondage  to  many  inherited  ideas,  ideas 
which  it  would  require  a  more  enlightened  age  to  illu- 
minate, to  revise,  or  displace.  Indeed,  while  the  reform- 
ers stoutly  challenged  the  authority  of  the  Church  in 
its  use  and  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,  it  did  not 
at  all  enter  into  their  purpose  to  institute  a  critical 
examination  of  either  the  historic  or  literary  character 
of  the  Bible.  It  was  not  accepted  as  even  a  part  of 
their  mission  to  question  acutely  the  great  body  of  tra- 
ditional lore  which  underlay  the  accepted  views  of  the 
sacred  books  in  their  day.  However  vastly  important 
its  mission,  it  was  still  not  the  mission  of  the  Reformation 
to  call  into  being  a  school  competent  for  the  task  and 
eager  for  the  work  of  giving  an  adequate  critical  study 
to  the  historical  and  literary  character  of  the  Bible. 
Even  the  age  of  the  Reformation,  luminous  as  it  was. 
was  not  ripe  for  such  a  movement. 

Not  until  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century 
were  the  conditions  ripe  for  a  real  science  of  historical 
and  literary  criticism.  It  was  at  this  period  that  the 
human  reason  came  fearlessly  and  invincibly  to  assert 
its  own  inherent  and  independent  right  to  investigate 
and  to  know  for  itself.  This  was  the  period  when  the 
treasured  fund  of  age-long  traditions  went  into  bank- 
ruptcy. A  significant  feature  of  this  new  intellectual 
era  was  that  its  leaders  were  laymen. 

This  era  may  be  characterized  as  one  largely  skeptical, 
at  least  one  of  profound  and  fearless  mental  inquiry. 
In  its  atmosphere  no  dogma  was  revered  simply  because 
it  was  enshrined  in  hoary  traditions,  no  ecclesiastical 
interpretations   were   accepted   as   true   simply   on   the 


BIBLICAL  CRITICISM  87 

long-standing  sanction  of  priest  or  council.  About  the 
only  infallibility  recognized  was  that  which  inhered  in 
the  human  intellect  itself.  A  passion  of  investigation 
was  begotten  which  could  be  satisfied  with  nothing  short 
of  knowing  the  truth  and  the  whole  truth  about  every 
subject  interrogated. 

In  this  new  atmosphere  all  ancient  records  and  lit- 
eratures were  subjected  to  most  critical  reexamination. 
Their  historic  and  literary  relations  to  the  countries 
and  times  in  which  they  originated,  the  truth  or  falsity 
of  their  narratives,  the  integrity  or  corruption  of  the 
texts  in  which  they  have  come  down  to  us — all  these 
features  were  made  the  subject  of  most  fearless, 
patient,  and  exhaustive  study.  Indeed,  this  was  the 
birth-period  of  what  is  now  the  well-established  science 
of  historical  and  literary  criticism. 

Now,  as  a  most  obvious  fact,  the  Scriptures  could  not 
escape  the  application  of  this  new  critical  inquisition. 
Their  very  prominence  as  the  most  sacred  literature 
of  the  world  would  inevitably  subject  them  to  this  process. 
The  fact  that  the  men  applying  the  new  methods  might 
have  been  skeptical  and  unbelieving  as  to  the  sacred 
character  of  the  Scriptures  themselves  could  really  make 
no  difference  with  the  final  outcome  of  the  case.  In 
so  far  as  the  Bible  was  a  body  of  literature,  and  by  so 
much  a  human  product,  the  new  student  felt  at  perfect 
liberty  to  apply  his  critical  investigations.  If  the  Bible 
is  really  a  divine  record,  then  no  amount  of  critical 
investigation  can  finally  do  it  harm.  If  its  character 
is  attacked  and  misrepresented  by  a  false  skepticism, 
then  it  simply  remains  the  duty  of  the  Christian  defender 


88        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

to  expose  the  falsity  of  the  attack,  and  to  restate  the 
grounds  for  belief  in  the  divinity  of  the  records.  And 
this  was  the  process  necessitated. 

It  is  puerile  to  cry  out  against  the  higher  criticism 
as  such.  The  scientific  criticism  of  the  Bible  was  as 
inevitable  as  the  movements  of  Providence.  The  Church 
would  be  most  recreant  to  duty  not  to  engage  in  this 
work.  If  the  Scriptures  should  be  unjustly  dealt  with 
because  of  the  skeptical  and  hostile  spirit  of  some  of 
the  promoters  of  the  new  critical  movement,  this  would 
only  impose  upon  the  Christian  scholar  a  new  obliga- 
tion to  expose  and  to  refute  the  attacks.  That  Christian 
scholarship  should  become  an  active,  and  in  the  long 
run  the  leading,  participant  in  the  work  of  biblical 
scientific  criticism  was  from  the  very  induction  of  the 
movement  itself  both  a  supreme  duty  and  a  superlative 
opportunity. 

Biblical  criticism  developed  along  two  principal  lines. 
First,  a  most  exhaustive  scrutiny  was  given  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  texts  through  which  the  Scriptures  have 
been  transmitted.  The  new  critics  turned  their  atten- 
tion naturally  to  a  dogma  which  had  been  accepted 
alike  by  the  mediaeval  and  the  Reformation  Churches, 
namely,  the  infallibility,  the  inerrant  inspiration,  of  the 
Scriptures  themselves.  A  critical  examination  and  com- 
parison of  the  various  texts  promptly  revealed  the  fact 
of  many  variants  in  these  texts,  and  consequently  gave 
room  to  challenge  the  long-cherished  dogma  of  the 
plenary  verbal  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  Since  the 
beginning  of  modern  biblical  criticism  there  have  come 
to  light  many  hitherto  concealed  manuscripts,  especially 


BIBLICAL  CRITICISM  89 

of  the  New  Testament,  all  of  which  have  contributed 
to  a  larger  interest  in  textual  study.  When  the  great 
work  of  Westcott  and  Hort  in  producing  their  Greek 
Testament  was  undertaken,  it  was  then  conceded  that 
the  textual  variations  between  manuscripts  at  their 
disposal  numbered  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand.  Surely,  a  very  great  number ! — yet  all  testify- 
ing to  the  supreme  importance  which  the  Church  has 
attached  to  the  preservation  of  the  New  Testament 
Scriptures,  and  furnishing  at  the  same  time  the  best- 
possible  conditions  for  the  critical  ascertainment  of 
the  correct  originals.  It  may  be  said  in  passing  that 
large  ground  of  assurance  is  furnished  in  the  fact  that 
"no  Christian  teaching  or  duty  rests  on  these  portions 
of  the  text  which  are  affected  by  differences  in  the  man- 
uscripts, still  less  is  anything  essential  in  Christianity 
touched  by  the  various  readings."1  We  may  also  grate- 
fully add  that  as  the  outcome  of  the  most  incessant 
and  exhaustive  studies  of  all  the  various  texts,  the  Church 
is  doubtless  in  possession  to-day  of  the  most  exact  repro- 
duction of  original  texts  possible  of  present  attainment. 
It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  the  multitude  of 
text  variations  makes  good  the  challenge  of  the  critics 
against  the  always  extrabiblical  dogma  of  a  plenary 
verbal  inspiration. 

The  second  general  direction  of  scientific  biblical 
study  was  that  which  deals  with  the  historical  and 
literary  character  of  the  books  themselves.  The  same 
critical  principles  were  applied  to  the  books  of  the  Bible 
as  to  other  literature,  and,  it  must  be  said,  with  results 

1  Ezra  Abbot. 


go        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

quite  revolutionary,  if  not  destructive  of  many  tradi- 
tional beliefs.  The  history  of  this  process,  which  has 
now  gone  on  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  with  its 
controversial  aspects,  its  advances  and  retreats,  its 
incalculable  labors,  the  unmeasured  light  which  has 
been  thrown  upon  both  the  history  and  literature  of 
the  Bible,  the  beneficent  reconstructions  wrought,  the 
rational  appeals  which  its  results  as  thus  far  reached 
make  upon  the  thoughtful  and  open  mind — all  this 
presents  a  field  of  exceeding  intellectual  and  moral 
interest,  which  here  must  be  passed  by. 

An  age  had  finally  come  whose  scholarship  was  ripe 
for  treating  the  books  of  the  Bible  purely  on  the  grounds 
of  their  grammatical,  literary,  and  historical  values. 
The  allegorical  methods  of  interpretation,  which  for 
sixteen  centuries  had  mystified  the  minds  of  its  readers 
and  had  obscured  the  real  meanings  of  the  Bible,  were 
now  to  be  swept  away.  Traditions  and  doctrines  which 
were  not  founded  upon  Scripture  facts,  but  which  were 
based  upon  the  dogmas  of  a  papal  priesthood,  were  to 
be  dethroned.  The  Bible,  its  monkish  garments  laid 
aside,  was  to  be  brought  forth  from  the  cloister,  and 
under  heaven's  own  sunlight,  and  in  an  atmosphere  of 
intellectual  freedom,  was  to  speak  forth  its  own  clear, 
unobscured  story  to  the  children  of  men. 

This,  if  there  ever  was  such,  would  seem  to  have 
been  a  providentially  guided  movement.  If  the  Bible 
is  a  record  of  God's  dealings  with,  and  purposes  toward, 
mankind,  then,  it  was  preeminently  due  to  this  book 
itself — the  most  important  possible  of  all  books — that 
it  should  have  unobstructed  opportunity  to  voice  itself. 


BIBLICAL  CRITICISM  91 

If  the  Bible  is  intended  to  speak  God's  thought  to  the 
human  soul,  as  a  man  might  speak  to  his  fellow,  then 
it  was  due  that  all  that  is  human  in  the  book — the  visions, 
the  inspirations,  the  hopes,  the  fears,  the  soul-experiences, 
that  live  themselves  in  the  human  writers  of  this  book 
— should  speak  at  first-hand  from  its  pages. 

All  that  the  Bible  needs,  all  that  it  ever  did  need, 
is  a  clear  and  unclouded  opportunity  to  declare  its  own 
history  and  to  deliver  its  own  message  to  the  children 
of  men.  And  this  opportunity,  far  more  perfectly  than 
ever  before,  has  been  afforded  by  the  historico-critical 
movement.  It  is  absurd  to  make  a  bogie  of  "higher 
criticism."  Higher  criticism  in  legitimate  application  is 
an  honest  attempt  to  give  its  subjects  absolutely  fair 
treatment.  It  has  been  well  defined  as  "an  effort  of 
the  mind  to  see  things  as  they  are,  to  appraise  literature 
at  its  true  worth,  to  judge  the  records  of  men's  thoughts 
and  deeds  impartially  without  obtrusion  of  personal 
likes  or  dislikes."  It  is  this  process,  long  and  patiently 
applied  to  both  the  Old  and  New  Testament  literatures, 
which  has  yielded  to  the  Church  and  the  world  the 
priceless  products  of  modern,  scientific  biblical  study. 
The  Bible  in  all  its  history  was  never  so  much  studied, 
its  yield  of  inspiration  was  never  so  rich,  its  divine  char- 
acter never  so  luminous  and  unclouded,  as  seen  in  the 
brief  period  since  the  birth  of  the  higher  criticism. 

For  the  entire  invaluable  process  of  emancipating  the 
Bible  from  the  fables  of  tradition,  from  unscientific 
dogma,  from  mystical  and  meaningless  allegory,  and 
from  the  domination  of  priestly  authority,  we  are  more 
indebted  to  the  German  than  to  any  other  single  nation. 


92        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

The  German  mind  is  plodding  and  thorough  to  the 
last  degree.  It  does  not  know  the  mood  of  surrendering 
a  subject  until  the  last  question  which  may  inhere  in 
the  subject  itself  has  been  answered.  A  review  of  critics 
from  Semler  to  Wellhausen  puts  before  us  an  illustrious 
procession  of  the  very  giants  in  German  scholarship. 
The  measure  of  unremitting  toil,  of  exhaustive  investiga- 
tion, which  this  army  of  scholars  has  given  to  biblical 
problems,  is  something  vast,  well-nigh  beyond  imagina- 
tion. It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  subject  of  scientific 
interest  to  mankind  has  received  more  competent  atten- 
tion, more  searching  investigation,  or  more  patient 
study  than  that  which  has  been  given  to  biblical  problems 
by  German  scholarship.  It  is  due  to  say  that  for 
unbiased  study  of  biblical  questions,  for  their  exam- 
ination in  the  pure  white  light  of  rational  thought,  the 
German  University  has  afforded  exceptional  opportunity 
to  its  scholars.  Under  state  management,  this  uni- 
versity has  been  the  one  center  inviting  free  investigation 
of  all  subjects  of  thought  with  immunity  from  priestly 
censorship  and  from  the  fear  of  ecclesiastical  ostracism. 

It  must  be  sadly  admitted  that  the  German  mind 
has  suffered  greater  reactions  from  the  critical  process 
than  that  of  any  other  people.  This  general  result, 
so  far  as  the  German  people  were  concerned,  was  natural 
and  inevitable.  In  the  realm  of  biblical  criticism  German 
scholarship  was  a  pioneer.  This  criticism,  pro  and  con, 
broke  upon  German  thought  with  startling  novelty. 
In  its  earlier  movement  it  was  brilliantly  led  by  skeptical 
and  destructive  minds,  such  as  Strauss  and  Bauer.  Its 
findings    traveled    rapidly    from    the    seats    of    learning 


BIBLICAL  CRITICISM  93 

to  the  thought  of  the  common  people.  It  could  not 
be  otherwise  than  greatly  disturbing  to  the  common 
faith.  To  reach  matured  and  measured  results  such 
as  are  now  quite  generally  accepted  by  competent  and 
constructive  Christian  scholarship  was  a  consummation 
requiring  time.  It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  for 
the  evils  wrought  a  constructive  Christian  scholarship 
was  not  responsible,  while  at  the  same  time  it  is  the 
mission  of  such  scholarship  to  correct  these  evils.  Never- 
theless, it  will  remain  true  that  the  work  of  Germany 
will  ever  command  a  growing  appreciation  in  the  world 
of  biblical  scholarship. 

It  would  be  an  incomplete  view  which  would  confine 
the  researches  or  conclusions  of  biblical  criticism  to 
Germany.  On  the  Continent  the  scholars  of  Italy, 
France,  and  Holland  have  made  brilliant  contributions 
to  this  science.  In  England  and  Scotland  the  names 
of  Robertson  Smith  and  S.  R.  Driver,  not  to  mention 
scores  of  others,  stand  in  enviable  fame  as  workers  in 
this  field.  If  one  really  desires  to  know  what  con- 
tribution American  scholarship  has  made  to  this  world 
subject,  let  him  read  the  names  alone  of  the  contributors 
to  two  monumental  products  of  modern  Christian  thought, 
namely,  The  International  Theological  Library  and  that 
greatest  commentary  of  the  Bible  in  English,  The  Inter- 
national Critical  Commentary. 

The  fact  to  be  emphasized  is  that  wherever  in  the 
world  to-day  there  is  a  commanding  scholarship,  there 
is  also  acceptance  of  the  broader  results  of  higher  crit- 
icism. As  the  great  Professor  Sanday,  of  Oxford,  says, 
"Its  conclusions  are  international  and  interconfessional." 


94        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

It  would  be  quite  gratuitous,  as  well  as  false,  to  assume 
that  the  history  of  the  critical  process,  first  and  last, 
has  not  been  characterized  by  a  wide  diversity  of  both 
opinion  and  motive.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
movement  in  its  earlier  stages  was  largely  negative,  if 
not  destructive,  in  its  aim.  Men  of  all  beliefs  and 
nonbeliefs  espoused  its  work.  Men  who  were  foes  to 
an  inspired  faith  naturally  took  advantage  of  all  evidence 
which  they  could  turn  against  a  traditional  orthodoxy, 
or  by  which  they  thought  they  might  undermine  the 
proofs  of  the  Scripture  as  the  record  of  a  divine  revela- 
tion. To  admit  this  is  only  to  concede  a  feature  which 
has  been  true  in  the  history  of  all  intellectual  con- 
troversies. There  has  been  no  scientific  discovery  which 
some  have  not  sought  to  wrest  against  accepted  theories 
of  truth.  This,  upon  the  one  hand.  On  the  other 
hand,  nothing  in  the  history  of  thought  is  more  obvious 
than  that  traditional  theories  and  dogmas  have  been 
in  innumerable  cases  forced  to  give  place  to  new  views 
of  .truth  as  resulting  from  new  studies. 

The  fact,  however,  that  merits  all  emphasis  to-day 
is,  that  biblical  criticism,  which  has  now  reached  the 
status  of  a  science,  is  no  longer,  if  ever,  in  control  of 
negative  or  destructive  minds.  The  vast  work  of  biblical 
criticism  as  now  conducted  is  in  the  hands  of  the  most 
able,  expert,  and  constructive  scholars  of  the  entire 
Christian  Church. 

Another  fact,  freely  to  be  admitted,  is  that  the  mission 
of  biblical  criticism  is  as  yet  far  from  complete.  There 
are  a  multitude  of  minor  questions  still  in  solution, 
questions  on  which  the  most  expert  either  hold  them- 


BIBLICAL  CRITICISM  95 

selves  in  suspense,  or  on  which  they  have  not  as  yet 
reached  grounds  of  agreement.  The  silence  or  the  dis- 
agreement of  critics  on  many  questions  can  furnish  no 
just  ground  for  surprise.  The  data  for  the  critical 
settlement  of  many  questions  are  still  undiscovered, 
or,  at  best,  most  obscure.  It  is  wonderful,  however, 
and  occasion  for  devout  gratitude,  with  what  success 
modern  scientific  research  is  uncovering  the  evidence 
which  more  and  more  must  decide  the  at  present  un- 
settled questions  of  biblical  criticism. 

Having  said  so  much,  I  now  call  attention  to  the 
larger  other  side  of  this  question,  a  side  which  merits 
all  prominence.  It  would  be  a  great  mistake  for  any 
to  assume  that  the  fundamental  principles  and  the  larger 
territory  of  biblical  criticism  are  not  already  secure. 
For  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  especially  and  pre- 
eminently for  the  latter  part  of  this  period,  this  task 
has  engaged  the  ablest  scholarship  of  the  Church.  No 
field  in  the  entire  history  of  human  thought  has  been 
more  expertly  or  exhaustively  examined  than  this. 
The  result  is  that  there  have  been  reached  wide  agree- 
ments as  to  fundamental  principles,  and  the  larger 
territories  within  which  all  the  lesser  questions  must 
be  explored  and  settled  have  been  clearly  outlined. 
The  supreme  battle  of  Christian  biblical  criticism  has 
already  been  fought  and  decisively  won.  It  is  only 
those  who  have  neglected  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
abundant  sources  of  information  who  will  have  the 
hardihood  to  deny  the  facts. 

A  statement  of  detailed  results  secured  would  prove 
too    voluminous    for    our    present    treatment.     In    the 


o6        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

field  of  the  Old  Testament,  I  know  of  no  more  concise 
or  complete  summary  of  these  results  than  that  pre- 
sented by  Dr.  James  Strachan,  a  richly  furnished  biblical 
writer  of  Edinburgh.  In  the  New  Cyclopedia  of  Re- 
ligion and  Ethics,  he  says  of  Old  Testament  criticism: 

It  has  reconstructed  the  history  of  Israel  in  the  light  of  that  other 
modern  principle — "There  is  no  history  but  critical  history."  For  the 
incredible  dogmas  of  verbal  inspiration  and  the  equal  divinity  of  all  parts 
of  Scripture  it  has  substituted  a  credible  conception  of  the  Bible  as  the 
sublime  record  of  the  divine  education  of  the  human  race.  It  has  traced 
the  development  of  the  religious  conceptions  and  institutions  of  Israel 
in  a  rational  order.  Moving  the  Old  Testament's  center  of  gravity  from 
the  Law  to  the  Prophets,  it  has  proved  that  the  history  of  Israel  is  fun- 
damentally and  essentially  the  history  of  prophecy.  It  has  made  a 
sharp  and  clear  distinction  between  historical  and  imaginative  writing 
in  the  Old  Testament,  and  so  enhanced  the  real  value  of  both.  It  has 
appreciated  the  simple  idylls  of  Israel's  folklore,  pervaded  and  purified 
as  they  are  by  the  spirit  of  the  earlier  prophets,  and  used  by  them  to 
transfuse  the  devotion  of  a  higher  faith  into  the  veins  of  the  people.  It 
has  thrown  light — as  Astruc  saw  that  it  would — on  the  many  duplicate, 
and  even  contradictory,  accounts  of  the  same  events  that  are  found  in 
close  juxtaposition.  It  has  explained  the  moral  and  theological  crudities 
of  the  Bible  as  the  early  phases  of  a  gradual  religious  evolution.  It  has 
denuded  the  desert  pilgrimage  of  literary  glory  only  in  order  to  enrich 
the  exile.  For  the  "Psalms  of  David"  it  has  substituted  the  "Hymn 
book  of  the  Second  Temple,"  into  which  are  garnered  the  fruits  of  the 
religious  thought  and  feeling  of  centuries.  To  the  legendary  wisdom 
of  one  crowned  head  it  has  preferred  the  popular  philosophy  of  many 
generations.  For  a  religious  history  which  looked  like  an  inverted  pyra- 
mid, it  has  given  us  one  which  is  comparable  to  an  ever-broadening  stream 
— the  record  of  a  winding  but  unwavering  progress  in  the  moral  and 
religious  consciousness  of  a  people.  Instead  of  crowding  the  most  com- 
plex institutions  and  ideals  into  the  infancy  of  the  nation,  it  has  followed 
the  order  of  nature — "first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full  corn 
in  the  ear." 

In  the  field  of  the  New  Testament  the  critical  process 
has  come  as  near  as  present  conditions  of  human  knowl- 
edge will  permit  to  the  settlement  of  the  synoptic  prob- 
lem; has  thrown  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  writings  of 


BIBLICAL  CRITICISM  97 

Saint  Paul  and  upon  his  life  and  times;  has  established 
the  probability  as  nearly  as  all  accessible  evidence  may 
affirm  that  all  the  present  writings  of  the  New  Testament 
were  produced  within  the  first  century.  The  secured 
canonicity  of  some  of  the  lesser  epistles,  such  as  Jude, 
Second  Peter,  Second  and  Third  John,  are  still  open 
questions,  as  they  were  when  the  New  Testament  canon 
itself  was  formed.  Upon  questions  of  the  authorship 
and  the  dates  of  the  Johannine  writings  more  micro- 
scopic scrutiny  has  been  concentrated  in  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  than  through  all  the  preceding  Christian 
centuries. 

Professor  Sanday,  a  foremost  authority  on  the  fourth 
Gospel,  says  that  it  is  without  doubt  the  latest  of  the 
Gospels  and  is  written  with  a  knowledge  of  the  other 
three.  In  his  view,  "It  is  a  retrospect  by  a  writer  of 
commanding  position  and  authority,  presupposing  what 
has  been  already  done,  but  adding  to  it  from  the  stores 
of  his  own  experience  and  reflection."  It  is  with  him 
an  open  question  whether  its  author  is  to  be  identified 
with  John,  the  son  of  Zebedee,  though  he  leans  to  the 
probability  that  he  was  the  same.  In  any  case,  he  has 
no  doubt  that  the  author  of  the  fourth  Gospel  had  been 
a  personal  disciple  and  follower  of  our  Lord,  though 
a  youthful  one.  It  must  be  conceded,  I  think,  that 
concerning  the  fourth  Gospel,  the  Apocalypse  and  the 
First  Epistle  of  John,  some  unanswered  questions  still 
remain. 

Well,  finally,  it  may  be  asked:  What  is  the  value 
of  it  all?  If  to  have  the  most  luminous  and  accurate 
knowledge  possible  of  the  historic  foundations   of  our 


98        CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

faith;  if  to  have  a  Bible  purged  of  priestly  fables,  of 
mystifying  allegorical  interpretations,  of  false  traditions 
and  of  unscientific  constructions;  if  so  to  clear  the  entire 
field  of  traditional  false  conception  as  to  permit  the 
Scriptures  to  speak  directly  to  us  from  the  background 
of  their  own  grammatical  and  historical  settings;  if  to 
have  accessible  to  every  Bible  reader  the  most  correct 
texts  which  human  study  can  give,  and  the  most  perfect 
historical  environment  possible  of  reproduction;  if  to 
hear  and  to  know  the  words  of  Christ,  if  to  see  his  his- 
toric image,  more  perfectly  than  has  ever  been  permitted 
to  any  generation  of  his  followers;  if  to  walk  in  vivid 
historical  companionship  with  his  apostles;  if  to  have 
at  our  command  a  more  rational  and  defensible  view 
of  the  Bible  as  an  inspired  record  of  God's  dealing  with, 
of  his  purposes  toward,  mankind — if  there  be  high  value 
in  all  these  things,  then,  the  biblical  critical  movement 
will  take  its  permanent  place  in  history .  as  one  of  the 
most  significant  and  beneficent  in  the  providential 
scheme  of  the  world. 


SECULARIZED  EDUCATION 


99 


Most  nations  make  some  provision  for  religious  instruction  in  their 
state  systems;  but  in  the  United  States,  where  there  is  most  complete 
separation  of  church  and  state,  there  is  practically  no  official  provision 
in  the  grammar  and  high  schools  and  in  the  State  universities  for  religious 
instruction  or  for  the  inculcation  of  the  religious  spirit. — Dr.  Thomas 
Nicholson. 

There  can  be  no  true  and  complete  education  without  religion;  to 
provide  adequate  religious  instruction  for  their  children  is  the  duty  of 
the  churches,  a  primal  and  imperative  duty.  The  hour  at  Sunday  school, 
the  religious  exercises  of  the  public  school  and  the  ethical  instruction 
of  the  public  school,  through  the  personal  influence  of  the  great  body 
of  religious  public  school  teachers,  do  not  meet  the  requirements  of  adequate 
religious  instruction.  To  provide  religious  instruction  for  their  chil- 
dren is  not  only  the  duty  of  churches,  it  is  their  inherited  and  inherent 
right,  and  this  right  should  be  recognized  by  the  State  in  its  arrange- 
ment of  the  course  of  school  studies. — The  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ  in  America. 

It  is  tremendously  important  that  school  administrations  come  quickly 
to  some  understanding  about  what  they  are  going  to  do  with  the  spiritual 
apprehensions  of  childhood.  The  unspoiled  mind  of  the  child  has  for 
its  first  right  all-roundedness  of  training.  To  rob  it  of  that  right  know- 
ingly is  a  species  of  highwayry.  .  .  .  Ten  to  eighteen  years  of  school  drill, 
and  ten  to  eighteen  years  of  silence  about  a  cosmic  instinct  puts  the  youth- 
ful mind  in  a  state  of  indifference  to  religious  issues.  It  considers  them 
academic; — or  purely  questions  of  preference  and  sentiment.  The  first 
result  of  such  a  policy  is  to  take  from  the  Church  its  rightful  power  of 
approach  to  the  school-trained  mind;  but  the  full  pathos  of  the  situation 
is  in  the  fact  that  when  the  educated  thought  of  this  country  has  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  religious  life  is  of  no  value  to  itself  it  has  come 
to  madness! — Dr.  William  R.  Halstead. 


ioo 


CHAPTER  VI 
SECULARIZED  EDUCATION 

Foremost  among  the  forces  which  tend  to  turn 
American  life  away  from  a  reverent  spirituality  is  the 
secular  spirit  which  so  largely  prevails  in  our  educational 
systems.  The  well-nigh  universal  secularization  of  edu- 
cation has  proven  a  destructive  foe  to  spirituality.  As 
compared  with  this  influence,  the  higher  criticism,  even 
though  it  had  to  be  adjudged  as  evil,  is  but  an  infant 
in  its  cradle. 

America,  and  m  one  of  the  most  phenomenal  eras  in 
history,  has  tried  on  a  national  scale  the  policy  of  a 
"free  church  in  a  free  state."  Here  religion  receives 
no  State  endowments.  All  that  the  State  undertakes 
is  simply  to  protect  religion  in  its  rights  of  worship. 
The  Church  must  absolutely  depend  upon  itself  for  its 
own  life,  its  own  support.  In  our  public  school  system 
many  diverse  influences  have  been  operative  insistently 
and  increasingly  demanding  that  the  educational  work 
of  the  schools  shall  be  conducted  without  Bible  study, 
without  worship,  and  with  the  entire  elimination  of 
distinctively  Christian  teaching. 

I  do  not  arraign  the  public  schools  on  their  secular 
side.  Their  teachers,  for  the  most  part,  are  persons 
of  character,  of  intelligence,  of  ability.  The  standards 
of  scholarship  are  creditable,  and  with  a  tendency  to 
increasing  strenuency  of  demand.     The  intellectual  prod- 


io2      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

uct  of  the  schools  as  a  whole  is  well  reflected  in  the  rank 
and  file  of  American  citizenship.  These  schools  encourage 
mental  thoroughness,  energy  and  honesty  of  purpose, 
and  they  have  contributed  beyond  measure  to  the  in- 
telligence and  manliness  of  our  national  life. 

But  toward  the  creation  and  promotion  of  spiritual 
ideals,  toward  the  distinctive  education  of  the  religious 
nature,  it  cannot  be  claimed  that  they  have  made  a 
corresponding  contribution.  Is  not  failure,  however,  in 
these  very  respects  one  of  the  most  disastrous  that  could 
be  charged  against  any  educational  system? 

A  recent  writer1  most  pertinently  says  that  a  true 
civilization  must  realize  and  build  upon  certain  primary 
elements  of  human  nature,  and  with  the  understanding 
that  these  elements  are  mutually  religious  and  inseparable. 
He  names  the  sexual  instinct,  upon  which  is  built  the 
institution  of  the  family;  man's  natural  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge, which  brings  about  educational  institutions;  the 
social  instinct,  which  expresses  itself  in  civil  society; 
and  finally  the  instinct  of  worship,  which  in  its  institu- 
tions designs  a  provision  for  the  responses  in  the  human 
spirit  to  the  nature  of  the  universe  and  to  God. 

These  four  things  in  proper  correlation  will  be  found 
under  analysis  to  cover  the  requirements  of  an  ideal 
civilization.  But,  this  being  so,  what  is  to  be  thought 
of  a  civilization  whose  educational  system  builds  with- 
out reference  to  the  spiritual  and  worshipful  nature 
of  a  nation's  youth?  The  Roman  Catholic  Church 
is  guided  by  a  true  instinct  when  it  insists  upon  educating 
its  own  youth  in  the  parochial  schools.     Her  authorities 

1  W.  R.  Halstead,  A  Cosmic  Review  of  Religion. 


SECULARIZED  EDUCATION  103 

know  that  the  enlightened  secular  spirit  of  our  public 
schools  is  fatal  to  the  claims  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

But  with  Protestantism,  and  with  civilization  as  a 
whole,  the  question  is  far  larger  and  other  than  that 
of  simply  holding  young  life  to  the  forms  and  doctrines 
of  a  particular  historic  Church.  It  is  a  question  of  the 
neglect  or  the  culture  of  the  most  vital  and  sacred  poten- 
tiality in  human  nature — in  the  last  resort,  the  relation 
of  human  life  to  God.  Give  the  child  over  for  the  twelve 
or  fifteen  years  of  its  educational  life  to  mere  secular 
ideals  and  methods,  with  only  at  best  the  most  incidental 
teaching  and  training  for  its  spiritual  nature,  and  you 
have  a  character  whose  spiritual  faculties  are  submerged. 
But  this  is  the  very  thing  we  have  been  doing  for  a  series 
of  generations.  The  result  has  brought  spiritual  atrophy 
into  many  homes.  Home  religion  is  decadent.  The 
family  altar  has  gone  out  of  fashion.  Parents,  victims 
of  their  own  secular  education,  are  not  alive  to  the  su- 
preme importance  of  spiritual  training  for  their  children. 

Of  course  there  is  a  large  contingent  of  American 
homes  in  which  this  secularizing  process  has  not  prevailed. 
But  in  so  far  as  it  has  prevailed  it  utters  everywhere 
a  menace  not  only  against  its  individual  subjects  but 
against  our  very  civilization  itself.  A  godless  civiliza- 
tion cannot  endure.  It  is  a  perversion  in  the  earth, 
a  reversion  from  the  trends  of  moral  evolution. 

The  American  public,  secular  school  system  viewed 
in  itself  is  something  majestic.  It  will  be  formative 
and  decisive  of  most  momentous  destinies  in  our  civiliza- 
tion. But  in  its  monopoly  of  educational  methods,  a 
monopoly  which  neglects  a  recognition  of  the  spiritual 


104      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

nature  of  childhood,  it  is  an  enormous  departure  from 
the  historic  methods  of  the  Christian  centuries.  It  is 
to  be  accepted  without  saying  that  organized  public 
education,  both  in  extent  and  quality,  is  a  vastly  different 
thing  in  the  twentieth  century  from  that  which  was 
either  conceived  or  possible  in  most  of  the  preceding 
centuries.  The  unmeasured  growth  in  just  the  recent 
past  of  a  scientific  knowledge  of  the  universe  has  in- 
calculably enriched  the  scope  of  educational  studies. 
Both  in  the  measure  of  topics  to  be  taught  and  in  im- 
proved pedagogical  methods  the  modern  education  has 
immense  advantage  over  its  predecessor.  But  in  the 
single  and  most  vital  matter  of  religious  education  no 
other  system  has  been  characterized  by  such  neglect 
as  that  of  our  own  American  public  school  system. 

The  value  which  Christianity  has  always  set  upon 
the  spiritual  training  of  childhood  is  rooted  in  the  very 
incidents  of  New  Testament  history.  Christ  took  little 
children  up  in  his  arms  and  blessed  them,  making  them 
the  very  types  of  his  kingdom,  and  declaring  that  of 
such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Timothy  is  the  most 
beautiful  character  of  all  Paul's  associates,  the  one 
doubtless  to  whom  he  was  personally  most  attached. 
Paul  loved  him  as  his  own  son  in  the  gospel.  The  Chris- 
tian value  of  Timothy  is  largely  accounted  for  in  the 
fact  that  from  his  infancy,  both  by  his  mother  and  his 
grandmother,  he  was  trained  in  a  knowledge  of  the 
Scriptures. 

In  patristic  history  we  trace  the  moral  greatness  of 
many  of  the  great  Fathers,  such  as  Basil,  Gregory  of 
Nazianzen,  Chrysostom  and  Augustine,  to  careful  spiritual 


SECULARIZED  EDUCATION  105 

training  in  their  childhood  by  Christian  mothers.  It 
was  of  Arethusa,  mother  of  Chrysostom,  that  Libanius, 
the  foremost  literary  man  of  the  heathen  world  in  his 
day,  said,  "Ah,  gods  of  Greece,  what  wonderful  women 
there  are  among  the  Christians!"  Augustine,  up  to  his 
day  the  mightiest  intellectual  successor  of  Saint  Paul 
in  the  Christian  Church,  though  he  had  entered  far 
upon  a  career  of  error  and  libertinism,  was  never  able 
to  escape  the  teaching  and  example  of  his  godly  mother, 
Monica.  During  the  Middle  Ages,  such  education  as 
existed  was  conducted  under  the  auspices  of  the  Church, 
and  one  of  the  central  features  of  that  education  was 
the  catechetical  religious  training  of  children.  After 
the  Reformation,  wherever  the  influence  of  Luther  and 
his  coadjutors  prevailed,  there  was  established  a  sys- 
tematic religious  education  of  childhood.  "In  1520 
Luther  demanded  that  the  chief  subject  taught  in  the 
schools  should  be  the  Holy  Scriptures.  ...  In  the  country 
districts  around  Wurtemburg  it  was  prescribed  as  early 
as  1528  that  the  sexton  in  every  village  should  be  re- 
quired to  give  instruction  on  week  days  in  the  Command- 
ments, the  Creed,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  also  in 
the  singing  of  hymns.  Parents  were  required  to  send 
their  children  to  this  instruction.  The  sexton  thus  came 
into  prominence  as  the  pastor's  assistant  in  the  villages."1 
The  real  founder  of  the  public  school  was  August 
Hermann  Francke.  "His  system  included  the  study  of 
nature,  and  provided  for  manual  training,  for  girls  as 
well  as  boys.  .  .  .  In  1763  Frederick  the  Great  adopted 
his  system  for  Prussia."2     But  the  matter  of  chief  em- 

1  Religious  Education  and  the  Public  School,  Dr.  George  U.  Wenner.  a  Ibid. 


io6       CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

phasis  in  Francke's  system  was  religious.  The  Church 
is  the  fruitful  mother  of  an  illustrious  progeny.  She 
is  really  the  mother  of  popular  education.  In  all  her 
counsels,  services  and  sacrifices,  she  has  reenforced  and 
fostered  the  policies  of  liberal  and  popular  enlighten- 
ment. 

It  would  seem  a  thing  most  anomalous  that  the  Amer- 
ican republic,  a  land  first  peopled  by  refugees  from 
religious  intolerance,  a  nation  whose  very  corner  stone 
was  dedicated  to  the  Christian  religion  and  to  the  rights 
of  man,  should,  among  nominal  Christian  nations,  be 
most  prominent  in  eliminating  religious  instruction 
from  her  vast  system  of  public  education.  In  the  main- 
tenance of  such  a  policy  there  is  perpetrated  an  enor- 
mous injustice  against  Christianity,  that  religious  faith, 
to  which  more  than  to  any  other  cause  the  nation  owes 
its  very  greatness.  The  omission  of  religious  teaching 
from  our  State-governed  systems  of  education  is  the 
committal  of  an  immeasurable  wrong  against  the  child- 
hood of  the  nation. 

I  am  quite  aware  of  the  fact  that  in  several  of  our 
States  the  laws  make  permissible  and  provide  for  a 
certain  amount  of  religious  exercises  in  connection  with 
the  work  of  the  secular  school.  Under  the  pressure  of 
public  sentiment  such  provisions  are  likely  to  be  in- 
creased rather  than  lessened  throughout  the  republic. 
It  is  very  evident,  however,  in  the  light  of  experience 
that  in  the  present  developments  these  concessions  by 
the  States  are  not  resulting  in  anything  like  an  adequate 
biblical  or  Christian  training  for  the  childhood  of  the 
very  States  in  which  these  provisions  exist. 


SECULARIZED  EDUCATION  107 

Germany  seems  to  be  thought  of  by  many  of  otir 
people  as  the  home  of  rationalistic  and  of  destructive 
critical  thought.  It  is  the  home  of  critical  scholarship 
and  of  advanced  educational  ideals.  But  in  the  matter 
of  religious  education  in  her  public  schools  Germany 
is  Christian  and  reverent  in  a  sense  and  measure  to 
which  we  in  America  can  make  no  claim. 

I  cannot  here  enter  into  detailed  statement  of  the 
German  educational  systems.  In  general,  it  is  enough 
to  state  that,  with  the  exception  of  schools  devoted 
distinctively  to  trade,  technical,  or  commercial  training, 
religious  education  in  schools  below  university  grade 
is  made  compulsory.  In  the  universities  the  teaching 
of  religion  is  provided  for  in  the  theological  faculty. 
Characteristic  of  the  thoroughness  of  German  educational 
methods,  the  teachers  provided  to  conduct  religious 
instruction  represent  usually  a  high  order  of  scholarship. 
They  conduct  their  work  studiously  and  reverently, 
making  their  duties  a  matter  of  conscience  and  devotion. 
It  seems  evident  to  those  who  have  had  closest  oppor- 
tunity to  study  the  religious  teaching  thus  required 
that  its  effect  upon  the  national  mind  is  both  vital  and 
uplifting. 

As  a  sample  expression  of  the  "aim  sought"  in  this 
public  teaching  of  religion,  I  quote  from  the  Declaration 
of  the  Official  Curriculum  from  the  Volksschullen  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Wurtemburg  as  follows:  "The  nurture 
of  the  religious  life  in  the  school  requires  that  the  entire 
instruction  and  discipline  of  the  institution  shall  be 
administered  in  the  fear  of  God,  which  is  the  beginning 
of  wisdom.     The  opening  and  closing  services  of  song 


io8      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

and  prayer  should  both  contribute  toward  and  give 
evidence  of  this.  It  is  the  task  of  specific  religious 
instruction  to  acquaint  the  children  with  the  facts  and 
verities  of  salvation  in  such  a  manner  that  both  a  love 
for  and  an  intelligent  comprehension  of  evangelical 
Christianity  shall  result." 

In  America  one  of  our  obstacles,  largely  regarded  as 
insuperable,  to  the  introduction  of  religious  instruction 
in  the  public  schools  is  the  diversity  of  religious  con- 
viction so  characteristic  of  our  population.  We  have 
with  us  in  relatively  great  numbers,  the  Jew,  the  Catholic, 
the  Protestant,  and  the  men  of  no  faith.  In  Germany 
this  problem  is  largely  met  by  segregation  of  the 
different  faiths  in  the  classroom,  and  by  providing 
for  Jews  Jewish  teachers,  for  Catholics  Catholic  teach- 
ers, and  for  Protestants  Protestant  teachers.  This 
method  ought  not  to  prove  impracticable  for  us  in 
America. 

Of  course  it  will  not  be  claimed  that  this  enforced 
religious  teaching  results  in  all  cases  in  experimental 
and  transformed  spiritual  lives.  But  it  has  this  im- 
measurable value,  that  it  makes  religious  truth  a  con- 
stituent part  of  education  for  the  individual.  So  thorough 
is  the  German  method  of  instilling  religious  truth  that, 
on  good  authority,  it  is  said:  "It  would  be  difficult  to 
find  on  the  streets  of  Berlin  a  boy  (or  girl)  of  fourteen 
or  fifteen  years  of  age  who  does  not  know  the  chief  events 
of  Old  Testament  history,  the  life  and  teachings  of  Jesus 
and  his  apostles,  the  best-known  church  hymns,  the 
principal  questions  and  answers  from  the  Catechism, 
and  a  choice  number  of  passages  which  he  has  mem- 


SECULARIZED  EDUCATION  109 

orized."1  How  many  of  our  nominally  Protestant  or 
Catholic  boys  and  girls,  the  products  of  our  boasted 
public-school  system,  could  meet  a  test  like  this? 

Dr.  Thomas  Nicholson,  the  highly  efficient  educational 
secretary  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  frankly 
recognizes  in  the  thought-mode  of  the  times  conditions 
which  make  it  increasingly  difficult  to  hold  the  masses 
to  the  churches  or  to  bring  them  into  hearty  cooperation 
with  the  program  of  Christianity,2  and  of  all  causes 
which  conspire  to  this  result  he  believes  on  "mature 
reflection"  that  none  is  so  potent  as  the  "negative  atti- 
tude of  our  whole  system  of  public  education  to  the 
religious  element  in  education  and  life." 

Aside  from  what  is  ordinarily  understood  by  the 
phrase  "our  public-school  system,"  we  have  a  generous 
number  of  institutions  known  as  "State  universities." 
Many  of  these  attract  to  themselves  large  student  com- 
munities, command  numerous  teachers  of  the  highest 
educational  type,  conduct  nearly  every  kind  of  pro- 
fessional or  technical  departments,  and  under  the  direction 
of  the  most  expert  specialists  possible  of  procurement. 
Some  of  these  institutions,  all  of  them  comparatively 
young,  already  rank  in  real  strength  with  the  very  fore- 
most of  our  older  universities.  These  universities,  by 
reason  of  the  liberal  financial  policies  of  the  State,  and 
because  of  their  rich  equipment  in  appliances,  are  destined 
to  take  on  greatly  increased  strength  and  a  widening 
sway  in  American  university  life.     A  characteristic   of 

1  In  the  preparation  of  the  above  statements  of  German  educational  methods,  I  have 
had  before  me  a  highly  valuable  manuscript  prepared  by  Dr.  Henry  H.  Meyer,  himself 
an  eminent  German  scholar,  in  which  he  treats  this  whole  question  from  the  standpoint 
of  first-hand  observation.  2  Militant  Methodism,  p.  141. 


no      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

these  State  universities  is,  that  while  they  support  strong 
schools  for  nearly  all  professional  departments,  they, 
unlike  the  German  universities,  make  no  provision  for 
maintaining  biblical  or  theological  faculties.  Religious 
teaching  is  a  function  to  which  they  give  no  place,  and 
for  which  they  assume  no  responsibility. 

In  the  last  fiscal  year  our  State  universities  were 
supported  at  an  expense  of  more  than  $72,000,000. 
This  large  expenditure  reflects  great  credit  upon  both 
the  wisdom  and  the  generosity  of  the  various  Legislatures 
in  making  so  liberal  provision  for  the  highest  type  of 
education  under  State  auspices.  But  the  very  largeness 
of  this  provision  for  secular  education  only  makes  more 
marked  by  contrast  the  neglect  of  all  provision  for  re- 
ligious instruction  in  these  institutions.  If  religion 
represents  one  of  the  primal  instincts  of  human  nature, 
if  culture  of  the  religious  nature  is  vitally  and  absolutely 
essential  to  a  complete  and  ideal  development  of  char- 
acter, then  the  failure  of  a  chief  educational  institution 
to  make  provision  for  such  culture  may  prove  just  ground 
for  the  severest  indictment  against  such  institution 
itself.  If  religion  is  a  matter  of  supreme  importance 
to  the  individual  and  to  society,  then  that  education 
is  most  valuable  which  vitally  and  sanely  enforces  the 
best  ideals  of  religious  instruction.  If  religion  is  a 
matter  of  supreme  importance  to  the  individual  and  to 
society,  then  that  institution  which  fails  to  give  a  capital 
place  to  religious  instruction  fails  disastrously  in  meeting 
the  highest  educational  ideals. 

The  contribution  which  an  educational  institution 
makes  to  religion  is,  by  certain  standards,  susceptible 


SECULARIZED  EDUCATION 


in 


of  proximate  measurement.  For  instance,  an  institution 
whose  teaching  faculty  intelligently  and  zealously  sup- 
ports religious  ideals  will  be  likely  to  send  forth  a  certain 
percentage  of  its  graduates  into  distinctively  religious 
work.  Candidates  for  the  ministry  and  for  foreign 
missionary  service,  it  seems  reasonable  to  assume,  should 
be  found  in  considerable  numbers  among  such  graduates. 

Dr.  Nicholson  assumes  that  at  least  twenty  thousand 
Methodist  students  are  in  attendance  upon  State  uni- 
versities. Yet  all  these  institutions  combined  supply 
not  more  than  four  per  cent  of  the  ministry  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  He  cites  one  great  State 
university,  with  a  thousand  student  members  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  with  three  thousand 
members  of  other  evangelical  churches,  and  with  a 
body  of  alumni  numbering  eight  thousand,  which  in  a 
history  of  fifty  years  has  given  less  than  twenty  ministers 
to  all  evangelical  churches  combined.  In  contrast  to 
these  figures  it  seems  significant  that  in  five  years,  from 
1904-09,  the  Northwestern  University,  at  Evanston, 
Illinois,  furnished  four  fifths  as  many  recruits  for  our 
foreign  missionary  service  as  all  the  State  universities 
in  the  United  States  combined.  And  in  the  same  five- 
year  period  two  of  the  small  Methodist  colleges  furnished 
five  more  missionary  recruits  than  all  the  State  uni- 
versities, and  yet  the  endowment  of  these  lesser  colleges 
does  not  represent  a  hundredth  part  as  much  as  that 
of  the  State  universities  in  question. 

Religious  purposes  are  born  and  nurtured  in  a  religious 
atmosphere.  It  is  estimated  that  twenty- two  per  cent 
of  all  college-bred  Methodist  ministers  reach  their  de- 


ii2       CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

cision  to  enter  the  ministry  while  in  their  undergraduate 
courses  in  religious  colleges.  This  is  a  great  testimony 
to  the  vitality  of  religious  influences  existing  in  these 
colleges. 

A  history  of  our  great  State  universities  reveals  as 
positive  a  divorce  between  their  general  policies  of 
education,  and  the  distinctive  mission  of  religious  teach- 
ing, as  is  shown  in  institutions  of  grammar  and  high 
school  grades  in  the  nation-wide  system  of  public 
education.1 

It  should,  of  course,  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  public- 
school  system  is  the  one  chiefly  considered  in  this  dis- 
cussion. There  is  a  large  number  of  schools  which  are 
established  and  conducted  under  religious  auspices. 
It  is  to  be  assumed  that  definite  attention  is  given  to 
religious  instruction  in  schools  of  this  class. 

The  institution  of  the  Sunday  school  is  in  universal 
vogue  among  the  Christian  denominations.  The  latest 
returns  show  an  enrollment  of  Sunday  school  scholars 
in  the  United  States  of  13,732,841.  The  production 
of  Sunday  school  literature  for  this  great  army  of  boys 
and  girls  has  resulted  in  the  development  of  some  of 
the  largest  publishing  interests  in  the  country.  The 
quality  of  study  material  for  the  schools  has  been  an 
evolution,  showing  a  continuous  improvement  through 
the  years.  Both  men  and  women  in  increasing  numbers, 
persons  representing  thorough  biblical  scholarship,  the 
most   approved    pedagogical    methods,    and    masters   of 

1  In  discussing  the  State  universities,  I  have  drawn  freely  upon  Dr.  Nicholson's  address 
delivered  before  the  Convention  of  Methodist  Men  in  Indianapolis,  October,  1913.  While 
he  deals  specifically  with  the  relations  of  State  universities  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  I  can  have  no  doubt  that  the  figures  given  are  typical  of  like  results  in  other 
denominations. 


SECULARIZED  EDUCATION  u3 

winsome  style,  have  been  secured  by  the  various  pub- 
lishers to  prepare  the  textbooks,  the  periodicals,  and 
the  weekly  papers  devoted  to  Sunday  school  uses.  One 
of  the  papers,  with  which  the  writer  is  familiar,  has  a 
weekly  circulation  of  more  than  five  hundred  thousand 
copies.  It  is  impossible  to  measure  the  moral  and 
spiritual  values  of  the  Sunday  school. 

But  if  it  be  true,  as  would  appear,  that  religious  train- 
ing of  children  in  the  home  is  on  the  decrease,  and  that 
for  multitudes  of  American  children  the  Sabbath  school 
is  the  only  place  in  which  they  receive  any  systematic 
religious  instruction,  then  self -evidently  the  Sunday 
school  does  not,  and,  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case 
cannot,  meet  the  larger  and  vital  demands  of  the 
situation. 

The  public  school  has  the  child  for  thirty  hours  in 
the  week.  The  Sunday  school  confines  its  classroom 
work  to  one  hour  in  the  week.  The  classes  in  the  public 
schools  are  taught  by  trained,  licensed,  and  paid  teachers. 
The  classes  in  the  Sunday  school  are  in  charge  of  volun- 
teer teachers,  many  of  whom  have  neither  training  nor 
competency  for  their  task.  I  am  far  from  a  disposition 
to  impugn  motives  or  to  depreciate  merit.  The  willing- 
ness on  the  part  of  any  one  to  enter  seriously  upon  the 
work  of  Sunday  school  teaching  merits  commendation. 
But  from  not  a  little  observation  I  am  much  impressed 
that  one  of  the  capital  difficulties  of  the  expert  Sunday 
school  superintendent,  in  the  average  community,  is 
in  securing  a  sufficient  number  of  competent  persons 
for  teaching  the  classes  in  his  school. 

The  Sunday  school  when  awarded  all  just  recognition 


ii4      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

is  in  itself  greatly  inadequate  to  the  mission  of  furnish- 
ing religious  education  to  the  children  of  the  nation. 
The  grave  fact — and  the  fact  is  grave  beyond  measure- 
ment— is  that  in  this  country  the  sane  and  efficient 
methods  of  religious  education  of  childhood  as  now 
operative  are  entirely  disproportionate  to  the  vast  needs 
and  importance  of  the  situation  itself,  and  to  the  vital 
moral  necessities  of  the  case.  The  gravity  of  the  situa- 
tion is  great  beyond  any  measure  to  which  the  national 
thought  has  yet  awakened.  The  nation  that  fails  to 
imbue  its  own  children  educationally  with  high  ethical 
and  spiritual  ideals,  is  a  nation  which  in  the  most  vital 
sense  fails  to  fortify  its  own  future.  It  is  but  an 
utterance  of  what  will  be  generally  recognized  as  sound 
psychologically  to  declare  that  there  can  be  no  complete 
education  without  religion. 

The  grave  consequences  of  our  national  neglect  in 
this  vital  department  of  education  are  more  and  more 
receiving  attention  from  our  ablest  educators,  and  to 
multitudes  of  thoughtful  people  are  bringing  an  increasing 
sense  of  apprehension  and  alarm.  Just  recently  the 
Central  Councils  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  this 
country  have  been  taking  this  matter  into  renewed  and 
most  careful  consideration.  The  parochial  school  system 
of  this  Church  fails  to  meet  the  educational  needs  of 
multitudes  of  its  children,  and  the  authorities  are  advising 
their  parishes  everywhere  throughout  the  nation  to 
avail  themselves  of  special  times  and  places,  either  with 
or  without  the  cooperation  of  the  public  schools,  for 
the  special  religious  education  of  the  children. 

The   Federal   Council   of   the   Churches   of   Christ   in 


SECULARIZED  EDUCATION  115 

America  is  perhaps  the  most  representative  body  of 
American  Protestantism.  At  its  first  meeting,  held 
in  Philadelphia,  in  1908,  the  question  of  the  religious 
education  of  children  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
important  for  consideration.  At  the  second  meeting 
of  this  Council,  held  in  Chicago,  in  December,  191 2, 
a  report  on  this  question  was  presented  in  which  the 
most  definite  and  urgent  resolutions  were  adopted  urging 
upon  national  educational  authorities  the  imperative 
importance  of  making  a  general  provision  for  religious 
education  of  the  childhood  of  the  nation. 

In  several  parts  of  this  country  and  of  Canada 
methods  have  already  been  entered  upon  for  the  intro- 
duction of  specific  courses  in  Bible  and  religious  train- 
ing in  normal  and  high  schools,  which  courses  are  to  be 
conducted  under  the  joint  auspices  of  the  Church  and 
the  public-school  authorities. 

The  question  of  the  religious  education  of  children  is 
one  of  such  primal  importance;  it  relates  itself  so  im- 
peratively, so  vitally,  to  the  moral  welfare  of  the  nation 
as  to  make  it  unbelievable  that  it  will  not  in  the  near 
future  receive  its*  rightful  recognition  and  coordination 
in  our  educational  life. 


EDUCATED  LEADERSHIP 


117 


In  this  day,  just  because  we  are  moving  out  to  a  newer  and  large 
world-view,  the  minister  must  be  reasonably  familiar  with  the  thought- 
movement  of  the  time  and  must  easily  be  able  to  orient  himself.  This 
aspect  of  contemporary  life,  not  to  mention  the  rising  tide  of  knowledge 
on  the  part  of  the  people  generally,  makes  the  best  possible  educational 
equipment  imperatively  necessary  to  the  preacher  of  to-day.  ...  It  is 
generally  conceded  that  the  college  graduate  has  greater  chances  of  success 
than  the  man  who  has  neglected  his  early  training.  And  the  difficulties 
to  success  with  an  educational  handicap  are  admitted,  for  the  most  part, 
by  men  who  suffer  the  disadvantages.  ...  I  have  often  thought  if  I  could 
get  the  ear  of  the  Church  at  large,  I  would  say,  "Give  your  best  young 
men  to  the  ministry  of  the  Church,  for  the  need  is  great,  and  nothing 
less  than  the  best  will  do."  ...  If  I  could  get  the  ear  of  our  college  author- 
ities, I  would  say,  "Pray  God  to  help  you  select  men  for  the  fields,  al- 
ready white  to  the  harvest,  for  as  no  other  men  in  the  kingdom  God  has 
given  you  the  opportunity  to  put  over  the  Christian  hosts  a  leadership 
well  equipped  and  needing  not  to  be  ashamed." — Dr.  Thomas  Nicholson. 

The  question  of  religious  education  is  the  greatest  single  question 
which  the  Church  has  to  face.  Once  we  thought  it  was  just  the  question 
of  a  subject;  the  making  of  a  catechism,  or  arranging  Sunday  school 
lessons.  Now  we  see  that  the  main  problem  is  not  in  the  subject  but  in 
the  soul.  We  have  the  new  science  of  religious  psychology  and  the  new 
art  of  religious  pedagogy.  The  great  movement  is  on  in  the  Church 
to-day.  The  minister  must  lead.  And  not  one  minister  in  ten  is  fitted 
for  that  task.  .  .  .  The  final  question  in  the  success  of  the  Church  is  not 
society,  and  collections,  and  buildings.  It  is  men,  Christian  service  at 
its  highest  efficiency.  And  the  pivotal  man  is  the  minister.  A  rightly 
trained  ministry  would  mean  a  Church  doubled  in  its  efficiency  to-morrow. 
God  has  called  us  in  the  ministry  to  the  highest  work.  We  deal  with 
the  highest  interests.  We  work  with  the  strongest  leverage  upon  men 
and  the  world.  For  that  work  we  will  give  God  the  best  and  highest 
self  that  we  can  be,  nor  grudge  the  years  of  study  that  our  college  mate 
will  give  who  looks  to  law  or  thinks  of  medicine. — Dr.  Harris  Franklin 
Rall. 


118 


CHAPTER  VII 
EDUCATED  LEADERSHIP 

Many  difficulties  which  beset  the  present-day  Church 
inhere  in  intellectual  conditions  which  are  quite  dis- 
tinctive to  the  age.  The  time  was  in  the  older  New 
England  when  the  pulpit  was  the  intellectual  oracle  of 
the  community.  The  preacher  was  the  best-educated 
man  in  the  town.  His  exposition  of  the  Bible,  his  teach- 
ing in  theology,  his  views  of  public  and  social  questions, 
were  accepted  as  authoritative.  But  the  day  of  a  pulpit- 
teaching  monopoly  on  questions  religious,  public,  social 
has  forever  gone.  The  public  press,  omniscient  in  vision, 
gathering  instant  its  knowledge  from  world-ends,  is 
to-day  thrusting  its  myriad  and  informing  pages  into 
all  homes.  There  is  more  trained  and  scholarly  intellect 
employed  in  the  creation  of  a  single  great  daily  than  is 
to  be  found  in  any  one  pulpit  of  the  land. 

This  daily  has  a  fresh  issue  for  every  day  in  the  year, 
and  an  eager  audience  of  many  thousands  of  readers 
for  each  issue.  It  brings  to  every  home  a  current  his- 
tory of  the  world,  and  gives  information  on  every  sub- 
ject which  may  challenge  interest.  The  daily  is  demo- 
cratic in  its  treatment  of  thought.  It  treats  all  sorts 
of  subjects  with  audacious  freedom.  On  Sunday  morning, 
when  the  minister  is  seriously  meditating  upon  his  im- 
pending pulpit  message,  the  Sunday  newspaper,  laden 
with  pictorial  and  literary  attractions,  is  delivered  in 

119 


i2o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

most  of  the  homes  of  the  parish.  Then  the  magazine, 
various  in  its  literary  product,  a  marvel  of  artistic 
make-up,  furnished  for  trifling  cost,  lies  upon  all  the 
living-room  tables.  And  books — books  by  celebrities, 
books  by  experts  in  all  departments  of  knowledge  and 
thought,  books  of  religion,  history,  philosophy,  science, 
of  essays  and  poetry,  books  discussing  with  skill  and 
lucidity  all  subjects  which  may  appeal  to  the  human 
intellect — these  may  be  had  for  the  asking.  Everybody 
who  has  intellectual  taste  may  read  books  in  these  days. 

The  preacher  is  no  longer  the  most  learned  man  in 
the  community.  The  college  man  is  abroad  in  the 
parish.  The  scientific  expert  is  the  preacher's  next-door 
neighbor.  The  appreciative  reader  and  devourer  of 
best  books,  here  and  there,  sits  in  the  pew.  The  preacher 
of  to-day  has  a  man's  work  to  do  to  keep  himself  intel- 
lectually abreast  with  the  best-informed  men  and  women 
of  his  parish.  If  he  should  happen  to  have  an  inferior 
intellectual  equipment;  if  he  should  be  lacking  in  that 
trained  mental  discernment  which  would  qualify  him 
for  selecting  the  best  courses  for  his  own  reading;  if 
perchance  he  were  mentally  indolent;  and  if  with  all 
he  should  be  something  of  a  faddist — as  such  men  some- 
times are — would  it,  under  these  circumstances,  be 
surprising  if  he  should  fail  to  command  a  large 
intellectual  following  in  his  community? 

A  great  fact,  however  unwelcome,  which  must  compel 
recognition  in  any  adequate  view  of  the  relations  of 
the  Church  to  the  age  is  that  much  in  the  accepted 
and  popular  thought  of  the  Church  is  out  of  adjustment 
with  the  leading  and  most  formative  thought   of  our 


EDUCATED  LEADERSHIP  121 

times.  We  are  living  in  an  age  vastly  transitional,  an 
age  whose  necessary  and  inevitable  thinking  has  made 
great  departures  from  a  large  body  of  belief  and  custom 
out  of  which  much  of  the  typical  and  traditional  thought 
of  the  Church  took  its  form.  We  are  citizens  to-day 
of  a  widely  different  intellectual  world  from  that  in  which 
either  Saint  Paul,  Martin  Luther,  or  John  Wesley  lived. 
Since  the  advent  of  Kant  and  Darwin,  philosophy  and 
science  have  been  reborn.  The  world's  most  formative 
thinking  voices  itself  in  new  postulates.  The  age  is  one 
of  great  intellectual  reconstructions,  an  age  which  with 
clear  vision  is  moving  sure-footedly  out  into  new  regions 
of  philosophy,  of  science,  of  psychology  and  sociology, 
regions  such  as  were  never  before  possible  of  exploration. 
This  intellectual  world  of  which  I  now  speak  is  one  in 
which  only  elect  thinkers  are  fully  matriculated.  It 
is  a  world  into  which  the  great  rank  and  file  of  church 
life  have  as  yet  very  little  entered.  It  is  a  world  whose 
intellectual  positions  unfortunately  have  too  often  been 
construed  as  antagonistic  to  time-honored  views  which 
the  Church  has  cherished.  It  has  thus  resulted  that 
many  good  men,  men  of  clean  morality,  of  unquestioned 
integrity  and  of  high  Christian  conscientiousness,  have 
very  little  appreciation  of,  or  sympathy  with,  the  great 
intellectual  trends  of  modern  scholarship.  The  prevalent 
and  popular  thought  of  the  Church-trained  life  has  not 
yet  adjusted  itself  to,  or  come  into  harmony  with,  the 
growing  and  ruling  scientific  philosophy  of  the  age. 

The  above  is  written  in  no  spirit  of  reproach.  A 
great  majority  of  the  best  people  in  our  churches,  people 
whose  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ  is  beyond  all  question, 


i22      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

have  neither  the  training  nor  the  intellectual  habits 
which  qualify  them  for  a  first-hand  judgment  of  the 
deeper  thought-movements  of  the  age. 

In  so  far,  however,  as  there  is  any  real  cleavage  between 
the  cherished  traditional  thought  of  the  Church  and 
the  positions  of  modern  scholarship,  this  cleavage  can 
only  be  justly  regarded  as  likely  to  be  fraught  with 
disastrous  consequences.  It  can  only  mean  the  putting 
asunder,  and  into  alien  camps,  forces  which  ought  to 
be  joined  in  indissoluble  harmony.  If  the  voice  of  the 
Church  condemns  and  derides  modern  scientific  think- 
ing, this  will  be  a  reason  why  the  thinker  trained  under 
modern  methods  will  do  his  thinking  and  his  work  out- 
side of  the  Church.  This  very  result  has  already  taken 
place  in  lamentable  measure.  The  college-trained  men 
and  women  of  the  nation,  the  men  and  women  of  inde- 
pendent and  self-respecting  thought,  are  not  working 
in  the  Church  in  any  such  measure  as  could  be  devoutly 
wished.  And  this  is  the  fact  while  the  professional 
classes,  the  very  classes  whose  work  requires  a  liberal 
education,  are  relatively  increasing  in  all  the  cities  of 
the  land.  The  college  men  who  really  find  an  inspiring 
and  satisfying  intellectual  atmosphere  in  church  affiliations 
are  not  as  numerous  as  they  should  be.  It  is  a  great 
misfortune  to  themselves  that  so  large  a  proportion 
of  the  most  effectively  trained  minds  of  the  age  fail 
to  find  a  satisfactory  intellectual  environment  within 
the  fellowship  of  the  Church. 

On  the  other  hand,  who  can  measure  the  enormous 
moral  asset  which  is  lost  to  the  Church  itself  because 
of  its  failure  to  appreciate  and   assimilate  the  wealth 


EDUCATED  LEADERSHIP  123 

of  truth  which  modern  scientific  thought  and  investi- 
gation are  giving  to  the  world?  No  life  more  needs 
the  enrichment,  the  stimulus,  the  uplift,  furnished  from 
the  products  of  modern  scientific  thinking,  than  does 
the  ordinary  rank  and  file  life  of  the  Church.  The 
Church  cannot  continue  to  live  and  thrive  under  any 
policy  that  makes  it  inhospitable  to  the  largest  freedom 
of  the  intellectual  life.  Thought,  and  the  enlarging 
perception  of  truth  which  comes  as  a  product  of  thought, 
are  not  simply  the  ozone,  they  must  be  reckoned  with 
as  vitalizing  and  indispensable  constituents  in  the  very 
life-blood  of  the  Church  itself. 

A  great  need  of  the  Church  to-day  in  its  governing 
life  is  complete  emancipation  from  any  atmosphere  of 
intellectual  narrowness  and  intolerance.  This  is  by  no 
means  to  imply  that  the  Church  at  its  highest  sources 
should  not  sedulously  guard  itself  against  error.  The 
Church  stands,  or  should  stand,  for  the  highest  truth 
that  relates  itself  to  human  life  and  destiny.  It  should 
equally  and  broadly  stand  for  all  affiliated  truth.  Its 
custodians  will,  however,  be  in  best  position  to  guard 
the  Church  itself  from  injurious  error  when  they  them- 
selves are  largest  and  sanest  partakers  of  present-day 
thought  as  related  to  the  problems  of  the  Christian 
life. 

If  I  were  to  suggest  that  one  of  the  present  imperative 
needs  of  the  Church  is  a  newly  formulated  theology, 
the  proposition  would  strike  some  as  audacious,  if  not 
incendiary.  Yet  nevertheless  the  suggestion  represents 
a  movement  now  in  vigorous  process.  And  why  not? 
The  historic  theologies  of  the  past  were  formulated  in 


i24      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

their  respective  ages  by  the  most  scholarly  minds  of 
the  Church.  Whatever  the  attitude  of  the  Church 
toward  modern  scientific  thought,  it  has  always  de- 
pended for  the  exposition  and  defense  of  its  faith  upon 
scholarly  minds.  And  no  historic  theology  has  come 
to  us  which  has  not  been  largely  correlated  with,  and 
shaped  by,  the  philosophy  prevalent  in  the  age  of  its 
origin.  The  purpose  of  theology  is  to  make  religion 
intelligible  and  convincing  to  thought.  But  this  pur- 
pose cannot  be  realized  unless  theology  is  so  stated  as 
to  be  in  some  correlation  with  the  general  knowledge 
of  the  age.  Most  of  the  historic  theologies  are  deficient 
in  a  sympathetic  or  effective  correlation  with  those 
views  of  man  and  of  the  universe  which  modern  scientific 
knowledge  has  forced  upon  the  age.  These  theologies  for 
body  of  substance  were  formulated  in  prescientific 
times.  They  had  no  prescient  outlook  upon  such  a 
thought-world  as  ours  of  to-day. 

A  new  scientific  category  well-nigh  covering  man's 
entire  physical,  psychic,  and  social  life,  and  the  entire 
range  of  cosmic  being,  has  gained  a  firm  place  in  the 
postulates  of  modern  intelligence.  Neither  the  Church 
nor  the  world  needs  a  new  gospel.  The  old  and  divine 
gospel  does  need  the  benefit  of  making  its  appeal  to 
the  modern  mind  disencumbered  of  superseded  thought. 
The  theology  that  will  be  effective  in  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury is  one  that  will  not  be  at  war  with  clear  convictions 
resting  upon  twentieth-century  knowledge.  The  ideal 
magnum  opus  of  such  a  theology  has  not  yet  appeared, 
but  the  material  for  its  making  is  abundant  on  every 
hand. 


EDUCATED  LEADERSHIP  125 

In  the  meantime  it  will  prove  an  unhallowed  thing 
if  the  Church  and  learning  shall  mutually  cherish  a 
divisive  spirit.  Learning  needs  the  Church.  Not  less 
does  the  Church  need  all  the  knowledge  and  wisdom 
which  the  most  learned  can  bring  to  her  altars.  Spirit- 
uality and  intelligence  are  the  twin  forces  which  are 
to  bring  triumph  to  God's  kingdom  in  the  earth. 

In  connection  with,  and  growing  largely  from,  the 
changing  intellectual  atmospheres  of  the  age,  it  will 
be  conceded  that  a  condition  of  vital  importance  to 
the  strength  and  influence  of  the  Church  inheres  in  the 
character  of  its  ministry.  That  the  Christian  minister 
should  be  a  good  man  goes  without  the  saying.  This 
phase  need  not  be  discussed.  A  necessity  of  the  age, 
an  imperative  necessity,  one  which  rarely,  if  ever,  should 
be  disregarded,  is  that  young  candidates  for  the  ministry 
shall  not  be  permitted  to  enter  upon  their  lifework 
until  they  have  first  received  the  highest  advantages 
of  the  schools.  No  young  man  who  proposes  to  give 
his  life  to  the  Christian  ministry  does  justice  to  himself, 
his  calling,  or  his  Church,  who  seeks  to  enter  upon  this 
work  without  first  giving  himself  most  thorough  educa- 
tional preparation.  The  intellectual  standards  of  the 
age  demand  nothing  less  of  him  than  this. 

It  is  not  a  primary  question  whether  a  man  entering 
the  ministry  short  of  the  highest  professional  preparation 
may  not  be  useful.  Such  a  man  may  have  native  gifts, 
sympathy  and  insight  which  will  render  him  in  the 
pastorate  even  a  greater  success  than  his  college-bred 
brother  in  a  neighboring  parish.  But  even  so,  this 
man,  with  hardly  an  exception,  has  robbed  himself  and 


i26      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

robbed  the  Church  of  an  important  increment  of  power 
and  largeness  of  view  which  would  have  come  to  him 
with  more  thorough  preliminary  training.  I  know  the 
difficulties  that  poverty  sometimes,  often  I  believe,  puts 
in  a  young  man's  way.  But  over  against  this,  any 
young  man  who  has  in  him  the  stamina  that  prophesies 
fitness  for  future  leadership  in  the  ministry  can  find 
ways  of  overcoming  these  difficulties.  We  have  heard 
much  about  self-made  men;  but,  as  a  rule,  the  only 
first-class  self-made  men  in  the  professional  world  to-day 
are  men  who  have  made  their  way  through  the  highest 
professional  training  schools. 

A  recent  investigation  by  the  Board  of  Education  of 
one  of  the  largest  evangelical  denominations,  covering  two 
decades  ending  respectively  with  the  years  1880  and  1890, 
shows  the  following  facts:  Of  those  who  responded  to  a 
special  letter  of  inquiry  sent  to  all  ministers,  asking  of 
their  educational  preparation  prior  to  their  entering  upon 
their  active  ministry,  of  three  hundred  and  ninety-three 
replying  who  had  received  less  preparation  than  the 
educational  requirement  of  the  Church,  only  one  can 
be  ranked  as  having  risen  to  prominent  leadership; 
while  of  four  hundred  and  thirty-eight  who  had  met  the 
educational  requirements,  forty-six  have  risen  to  historic 
leadership  in  the  denomination. 

Some  denominations  more  than  others  have  insisted 
upon  high  standards  of  ministerial  education.  It  is 
not  easy  in  this  matter  to  secure  reliable  statistics  from 
all  the  denominations;  but  from  such  information  as 
I  have  been  able  to  obtain,  I  am  impressed  that  more 
than  one  half  of  all  the  active  evangelical  ministers  of 


EDUCATED  LEADERSHIP  127 

the  nation  entered  upon  their  ministry,  each  with  less 
than  the  equivalent  of  an  ordinary  high-school  education. 

The  astronomer  takes  his  pupils  up  into  the  observatory, 
where  with  his  telescope  he  can  sweep  all  the  constella- 
tions of  the  skies.  This  is  the  great  advantage  of  the 
college  and  seminary -trained  men.  The  college  and 
seminary  do  not  teach  all  knowledge.  But  under  trained 
leadership  they  take  the  young  mind  up  into  the  observ- 
atory where  can  be  traced  the  boundaries  of  the  great 
and  important  divisions  of  knowledge  and  of  thought. 
The  young  man  really  college- trained  enters  the  door 
of  professional  life,  not  only  with  quickened  ideals, 
not  only  in  possession  of  many  valuable  facts  and  ideas, 
but  with  a  sense  of  proportion  as  to  intellectual  values. 
He  knows  what  fields  he  may  most  profitably  enter 
for  investigation.  He  carries  to  his  work  disciplined 
faculties  which  vastly  enhance  his  working  power.  He 
easily  makes  himself  master  of  tasks  before  which  other 
men  fail.  The  man  of  defective  preliminary  education 
enters  the  ministry  under  a  tremendous  handicap. 
The  chances  are  that  he  has  never  acquired  the  habits 
of  a  student.  He  does  not  really  know  how  to  study. 
He  does  not  know  what  to  study. 

As  it  is,  however,  with  all  the  colleges  and  theological 
seminaries  under  the  auspices  of  the  Church,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  multitude  of  universities  and  colleges 
throughout  the  land,  a  pronounced  majority  of  American 
preachers  are  graduates  neither  of  the  college  nor  the 
seminary.  This  is  not  pleasant  ground  to  traverse. 
I  am  farthest  from  a  disposition  personally  to  arraign 
or  berate  the  man  of  limited  education.     His  limitation 


128      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

is  his  misfortune.  But,  the  situation  is  one  of  ominous 
portent  for  the  Church  of  the  twentieth  century.  It  is 
not  reasonable  to  assume  that  men  not  imbued  with 
the  ideals  of  a  liberal  education  can  readily  rise  to  an 
adequate  conception  of  the  intellectual  demands  which 
rightfully  in  these  times  are  laid  upon  the  Christian 
ministry. 

I  have  had  some  opportunity  to  observe  the  intel- 
lectual habits  of  ministers.  This  may  be  laid  down 
as  true:  The  great  preachers,  the  preachers  who  com- 
mand the  largest  hearing,  are,  almost  without  exception, 
omnivorous  readers.  They  are  great  buyers  of  books. 
They  are  students.  But  there  is  a  woeful  number  of 
our  ministers  who  are  not  in  any  pronounced  sense 
book-lovers.  Their  libraries  in  many  cases  are  pitiably 
meager.  They  give  no  evidence  either  in  public  utter- 
ance or  in  private  conversation  of  commanding  familiarity 
with  scholarly  themes.  To  say  nothing  about  the 
temptation  to  which  many  such  men  are  exposed  to 
run  into  intellectual  fads,  eccentricities,  and  crankisms, 
insufficient  intellectual  equipment  is  quite  sure  to  be 
found  in  company  with  mental  indolence.  In  the  mean- 
time the  price  of  all  this  to  the  Church  is  most  costly. 
The  intellectual  life,  really  the  most  influential  life  of 
the  community,  will  not  put  itself  under  the  leadership 
of  such  a  ministry.  The  minister  whose  intellectuality 
does  not  command  the  respect  of  the  high-school  boys 
and  girls  in  his  community  is  a  man  misplaced. 

There  is,  of  course,  another  large  side  to  this  whole 
question.  It  is  the  side  created  by  petty  denominational 
rivalries  which  find  their  expression  largely  throughout 


EDUCATED  LEADERSHIP  129 

the  country  in  small  and  struggling  churches,  churches 
which  represent  a  meager  and  pitiably  insufficient  ministe- 
rial support,  and  all  furnishing  a  background  largely 
destitute  of  incentive  to  ministerial  hope,  ambition,  or 
energy.  As  has  already  been  noted,  we  have  in  this 
country  an  absurd  numerical  excess  of  distinct  Protes- 
tant denominations.  In  many  instances  a  half  dozen 
of  these  denominations,  all  weak  and  therefore  inefficient, 
are  struggling  to  occupy  a  ground  which  otherwise 
might  strongly  and  profitably  be  ministered  to  by  a 
single  church.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  men  of  large 
business  discernment  and  administrative  ability  have 
in  innumerable  instances  lost  both  interest  and  faith 
in  this  kind  of  church  development?  A  condition, 
however,  which  causes  the  perpetuation  of  a  needless 
number  of  weak  and  rival  churches  inevitably  means 
a  well-nigh  corresponding  number  of  ill  equipped 
ministers. 

In  entering  the  plea  for  a  high  standard  of  ministerial 
education  I  am  farthest  possible  from  the  assumption 
that  an  educated  intellect  is  by  any  means  solely,  or 
even  chiefly,  the  condition  of  an  efficient  ministry. 
The  man  of  good  normal  mind,  with  a  pronounced 
spiritual  experience,  with  a  divine  love  of  men  begotten 
in  his  life,  consecrated  in  purpose,  a  diligent  student 
of  his  English  Bible,  and  possessing  a  tactful  approach 
to  his  fellow  men — this  kind  of  a  man,  as  a  winner  of 
souls,  will  be  far  more  efficient  than  could  be  expected 
of  the  most  critically  trained  intellect  otherwise  destitute 
of  the  qualities  named. 

The  beautiful  and  just  portrait  of  the  faithful  preacher 


i3o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

which  Goldsmith,  in  his  "Deserted  Village,"  furnishes 
is  a  picture  of  something  far  other  than  that  of  simply 
a  trained  intellect.  It  is  a  picture  of  love,  of  devotion, 
of  charity,  of  helpfulness,  of  unselfishness,  all  blending 
themselves  into  a  single  life,  of  a  service  so  Christlike 
that  its  influence  rested  like  a  benediction  upon  the 
entire  community: 

At  church,  with  meek  and  unaffected  grace, 

His  looks  adorned  the  venerable  place; 

Truth  from  his  lips  prevailed  with  double  sway, 

And  fools  who  came  to  scoff  remained  to  pray. 

The  service  past,  around  the  pious  man, 

With  ready  zeal  each  honest  rustic  ran; 

E'en  children  followed,  with  endearing  wile, 

And  plucked  his  gown,  to  share  the  good  man's  smile. 

His  ready  smile  a  parent's  warmth  expressed, 

Their  welfare  pleased  him,  and  their  cares  distressed; 

To  them  his  heart,  his  love,  his  griefs  were  given, 

But  all  his  serious  thoughts  had  rest  in  heaven. 

But  when  fullest  emphasis  is  laid  on  other  qualities 
essential  to  highest  ministerial  efficiency,  there  is  in 
it  all  no  concession  to  ideals  of  defective  intellectual 
education  for  our  modern  ministry.  The  minister's 
mission  is,  or  should  be,  largely  with  childhood.  He 
ought  to  be  a  master  of  the  pedagogy  and  psychology 
of  childhood  training.  He  is  to  minister  in  a  community 
where  education  is  general,  in  which  the  professional 
men,  and  the  men  of  leading  influence,  are  educated. 
In  general  culture  he  should  be  at  least  a  peer  among 
the  ablest  of  them  all.  Concerning  the  Bible,  its  teach- 
ing, its  history,  he  ought  to  know  more  than  any  of 
his  neighbors.  While  as  expounder  of  the  Scriptures, 
he  is  not  to  be  a  gratuitous  disturber  of  immature  minds, 


EDUCATED  LEADERSHIP  131 

nor  to  treat  recklessly  inherited  views  which  his 
intelligence  does  not  permit  him  to  share,  it  will  still 
be  to  his  discredit  if  he  is  not  familiarly  at  home  with 
both  the  discussions  and  the  conclusions  reached  about 
the  Bible  by  the  most  scholarly  and  competent  Christian 
thinkers. 

An  imperative  demand  upon  the  Christian  minister 
of  to-day  is  that  he  command  the  intellectual  respect 
of  the  community  in  which  he  ministers.  Lacking 
this,  whatever  other  qualities  he  may  have,  he  is  destined 
to  fail  at  points  of  vital  need. 


PLUTOCRACY 


133 


Our  intensest  anger  is  not  that  mouths  are  hungry,  but  that  insufficent 
physical  nourishment  means  mind  and  heart  unfed;  not  that  bodies  are 
crowded  together  in  the  homeless  warrens  of  poverty,  but  that  then 
the  soul  is  without  air  to  breathe  or  room  to  grow  in,  and  the  decencies 
and  dignities  owed  to  manhood,  womanhood,  and  childhood  are  denied; 
not  that  men's  shoulders  are  bowed  down  by  hopeless,  aimless  labor, 
but  that  the  soul's  power  to  do  its  proper  work  is  threshed  out  of  it.  And 
this  indignation  can  demand  no  less  a  right  for  all  men  than  untram- 
meled  growth  of  power  for  wisdom  and  beauty,  for  joy  and  love,  for  right- 
eousness and  holiness.  The  demand  is  not  for  things,  except  as  things 
serve  souls,  not  for  conditions,  except  as  conditions  further  the  inner 
life.— Charles  Henry  Dickinson. 

Life  is  holy.  Respect  for  life  is  Christian.  Business,  setting  Profit 
first,  has  recklessly  used  up  the  life  of  the  workers,  and  impaired  the 
life  of  the  consumers  wherever  that  increased  profit.  The  life  of  great 
masses  has  been  kept  low  by  poverty,  haunted  by  fear,  and  deprived 
of  the  joyous  expression  of  life  in  play.  .  .  .  With  unanimous  moral  judg- 
ment mankind  has  always  loved  and  exalted  those  who  sacrificed  their 
self-interest  to  the  common  welfare,  and  despised  those  who  sold  out 
the  common  good  for  private  profit.  The  cross  of  Christ  stands  for  the 
one  principle  of  action;  the  bag  of  Judas  stands  for  the  other.  God's 
country  begins  where  men  love  to  serve  their  fellows.  The  devil's  country 
begins  where  men  eat  men.  I  submit  the  proposition  that  the  over- 
growth of  private  interests  has  institutionalized  an  unchristian  principle, 
and  that  we  must  reverse  the  line  of  movement  if  we  want  to  establish 
the  law  of  Christ. — Professor  Walter  Rauschenbusch. 


134 


CHAPTER  VIII 
PLUTOCRACY 

I  desire  to  preface  this  chapter  by  some  statements 
regarding  the  legitimacy  and  rights  of  private  wealth. 
Both  have  sure  standing  ground  in  Christian  ethics. 
Nothing  can  be  more  irrational,  nothing  less  justified, 
than  an  indiscriminate  outcry  against  the  owners  of 
wealth.  The  man  who  by  honest  skill,  industry,  and 
thrift,  amasses  for  himself  a  fortune  must,  in  the  very 
process,  practice  and  develop  certain  qualities  which 
in  themselves  are  essential  traits  of  Christian  char- 
acter. I  find  a  list  of  these  qualities  nowhere  better 
suggested  than  by  Dr.  W.  M.  Clow.  "Industry,  fidelity, 
foresight,  careful  attention  to  details,  self-denial,  and 
a  wise  regard  to  a  man's  spending  and  pleasuring.  No 
man  can  achieve  riches  without  a  constant  self-control, 
a  careful  providence,  and  a  costly  observance  of  the 
virtues  which  all  men  find  difficult."1 

No  interpretation  of  Christ's  utterances  concerning 
wealth — and  some  of  these  are  very  severe — can  be 
justly  construed  as  a  condemnation  of  wealth  per  se. 
That  Christ  did  most  vividly  portray  the  responsibilities 
of  wealth  is  beyond  question.  He  uniformly  preached 
its  possession  as  a  grave  moral  trust.  For  its  use  its 
holder  in  every  instance  is  held  strictly  responsible  as 
a  steward  who  must  give  account  of  his  stewardship. 

1  Christ  in  the  Social  Order,  p.  114. 

135 


i36      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

The  rich  must  be  rich  in  alms  for  the  needy.  It  is  their 
privilege  to  create  and  contribute  to  appliances  for  the 
development  and  education  of  artistic,  technical,  and 
special  gifts,  gifts  which  may  finally  serve  the  common 
good.  As  elsewhere  indicated,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive 
how  the  finer  cultural  interests  of  society  can  either 
be  best  or  well  served  without  a  liberal  consecration  of 
privately  directed  wealth.  Even  Mr.  Hillquit  acknowl- 
edges that  for  most  of  its  special  and  valuable  endow- 
ments society  is  indebted  to  the  gifts  of  private  wealth. 
He  says,  "To  this  capitalist  system  of  wealth  distribution 
we  are  largely  indebted  for  our  libraries,  our  hospitals, 
rescue  missions,  and  charitable  institutions  of  all 
descriptions." 

Its  investment  in  the  development  of  industrial  and 
commercial  interests  is  an  entirely  legitimate  use  of 
wealth.  None  is  to  be  more  respected  than  he  who 
uses  his  trained  experience  and  talent  in  the  develop- 
ment of  legitimate  and  useful  business.  Such  a  man 
is  a  benefactor. 

A  fact  worthy  of  special  emphasis  is  that  in  periods 
of  industrial  depression  many  privately  owned  enter- 
prises are  conducted  principally  with  reference  to  the 
good  of  labor.  Many  such  enterprises,  while  paying 
their  labor  the  highest  wages  of  the  market,  are  pro- 
ducing only  the  narrowest  margins  of  profit,  if  not  even 
suffering  financial  loss.  In  some  cases  the  demand 
for  the  commodity  dealt  with  is  so  limited,  or,  as  in 
most  cases,  the  competition  of  business  is  so  keen  and 
close,  as  to  make  impossible  any  special  division  of 
earnings  as  above  actual  wages  paid  to  labor  employed. 


PLUTOCRACY  i37 

This  benevolent  course  on  the  part  of  ownership  so 
largely  characterizes  the  average  business  world  as  to 
make  it  little  less  than  an  atrocity  for  the  socialistic 
writer,  or  organized  labor,  to  indiscriminately  charge 
the  business  proprietor  as  being  a  robber  of  the  poor. 

The  man  who  assumes  the  capitalistic  risk  of  con- 
ducting a  business,  paying  his  labor  the  highest  wage 
of  the  market,  thereby  leaving  for  himself  only  a  legit- 
imate income  and  a  narrow  margin  for  capital  invested, 
merits  commendation  as  a  benefactor  in  his  com- 
munity. 

Christ  did  not  condemn  the  possession  of  wealth 
per  se.  His  pictures,  however,  of  the  perils  of  wealth 
are  so  appalling  as  almost  to  make  one  feel  that  it  is 
better  and  safer  to  be  poor  than  to  be  rich.  The  rich 
man  who  trusteth  in  his  riches  cannot  hope  to  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  It  were  easier  for  a  camel 
to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle.  An  insidious  deceit- 
fulness  attends  the  lust  of  wealth  which  chokes  the 
very  word  of  life  out  of  the  human  soul.  The  rich 
man  who  trusted  to  the  abundance  of  his  treasure,  and, 
therefore,  proposed  for  himself  a  life  of  banqueting 
and  pleasure  is  characterized  by  Christ  as  a  fool.  And 
he  adds,  "So  is  he  that  layeth  up  treasure  for  himself 
and  is  not  rich  toward  God."  A  young  man,  so  out- 
wardly attractive  in  character  as  especially  to  challenge 
the  interest  of  Jesus,  came  to  him  asking  what  he  should 
do  to  gain  eternal  life.  Christ  said  unto  him,  "Sell 
all  that  thou  hast,  and  distribute  unto  the  poor,  and 
thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven:  and  come,  follow 
me."     And  when  he  heard  this  he  was  very  sorrowful, 


138      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

for  he  was  very  rich.  Saint  Paul  says,  "They  that 
will  be  rich  fall  into  temptation  and  a  snare,  and  into 
many  foolish  and  hurtful  lusts,  which  drown  men  in 
destruction  and  perdition."  Saint  James  pronounces  the 
most  caustic  woes  against  the  rich  who  oppress  the 
poor  and  defraud  the  laborer. 

The  trend  of  New  Testament  teaching  unmistakably 
makes  the  possession  of  wealth  a  great  responsibility. 
Its  spirit  demands  of  the  rich  that  they  treat  their  wealth 
as  a  moral  trust.  No  rich  proprietor  has  a  right  to 
revel  in  a  surplus  of  wealth  while  those  who  have  reaped 
down  his  fields  or  toiled  for  wage  at  his  machines  are 
forced  to  do  with  the  barest  necessities  of  life.  The 
capitalist  who  employs  an  army  of  labor  at  a  barely 
living  wage  and  who  inordinately  swells  his  private 
fortune  makes  no  atonement  for  such  a  wrong  by 
ostentatiously  founding  and  endowing  institutions  for 
the  public. 

Selfishness  is  a  great  foe  of  social  and  moral  progress. 
Between  the  enlightened  Christian  conscience  and  worldly 
selfishness  there  is,  and  must  be,  irrepressible  conflict. 
Selfishness  detrimental  to  both  individual  and  social 
welfare  is  not  confined  to  any  one  class  or  condition 
of  men.  It  is  as  positively  a  characteristic  of  the  poor 
as  of  the  rich,  of  those  socially  most  helpless  as  of  those 
in  privileged  life.  Selfishness  is  a  great  detraction 
from  character.  However  environed,  no  one  can  come 
to  his  best  save  as,  by  the  transforming  power  of  higher 
motives,  the  spirit  of  selfishness — the  kind  of  selfishness 
which  seeks  its  own  end  regardless  of  the  interest  of 
others — has  been  dethroned  from  the  life. 


PLUTOCRACY  I39 

In  all  the  range  of  human  motives  there  is  probably 
no  single  factor  in  connection  with  which  selfishness 
shows  its  moral  obliquity,  or  its  heartless  despotism, 
more  supremely  than  in  the  acquisition  and  uses  of 
money.  The  tyrannies  of  selfishness  have  marked  the 
pathway  of  history  with  tragedies.  It  is  the  foundation 
upon  which  all  despotisms  have  been  planted.  It  has 
been  the  breeder  of  slaveries,  of  castes,  of  spurious 
aristocracies,  and  of  all  kinds  of  invidious  distinctions 
which  all  through  the  ages  have  disfranchised  the  mul- 
titudes from  participation  in  the  higher  attainments 
of  manhood.  It  has  been  the  fruitful  corrupter  of 
morals,  the  betrayer  of  the  innocent,  and,  clad  in  priestly 
robes,  it  has  audaciously  performed  its  functions  at 
the  very  altar  dedicated  to  the  high  purposes  of  re- 
ligion. 

Selfishness  is  the  one  power  which  through  the  ages 
has  sent  right  to  the  scaffold,  and  has  kept  wrong  upon 
the  throne,  yet  it  has  been  reserved  for  this  most  en- 
lightened and  privileged  age  of  civilization  to  erect  on 
the  basis  of  money  one  of  the  most  widespread,  arrogant, 
and  heartless  of  despotisms.  There  never  was  a  des- 
potism that  held  under  its  dominion  a  larger  census 
of  defenseless  subjects  than  the  money  power  of  this 
Christian  age. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  discussion  to  deny  the 
legitimacy  of  money,  nor  yet  to  inveigh  against  large 
capitalistic  combinations  in  promotion  of  world-serving 
enterprises.  I  do,  however,  distinctly  challenge  the 
moral  legitimacy  of  capitalistic  monopolies  which  more 
and  more  include  within  the  control  of  huge  and  close 


i4o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

corporations  the  industries  of  a  nation;  corporations 
directed  by  a  privileged  few,  and  from  whose  counsels 
and  revenues  the  masses  are  excluded,  and  whose  com- 
bined power  and  policies  make  it  practically  impossible 
for  men  of  smaller  capital  successfully  to  enter  the  field 
in  competitive  enterprise. 

I  know  something  of  what  is  said  in  justification  of 
monopolies.  They  profess  to  serve  the  greater  com- 
munity with  the  best  product  and  at  prices  as  reason- 
able as  is  consistent  with  the  most  economical  creation 
and  distribution  of  the  product  itself.  They  claim  to 
be  able  to  regulate  the  quantities  of  production,  the 
prices  of  sale,  and  thus  to  give  stability  to  industry  and 
to  the  market.  And  if  it  be  true  that  the  great  com- 
binations exclude  a  multitude  of  lesser  capitalists  from 
entering  successfully  into  businesses  directed  by  them- 
selves, it  is  claimed  as  a  compensating  offset  that  the 
really  capable,  those  who  might  otherwise  become 
proprietors,  are  sought  to  fill  responsible  and  remunerative, 
though  subordinate,  positions  in  the  combinations.  Thus 
the  trusts  appear  ostensibly  in  the  role  of  philanthropic 
guarantors  against  financial  want  in  behalf  of  those 
whom  they  select  as  having  valuable  business  and  exec- 
utive ability  for  their  service.  So  a  multitude  of  salaried 
men,  who  are  notified  by  a  decree  as  inexorable  as  fate 
that  they  will  never  be  permitted  to  enter  business 
for  themselves,  may  have  reason  for  devout  gratitude 
that  through  the  sovereign  power,  wisdom,  and  beneficence 
of  the  gigantic  machine,  they  will  be  permitted  to  live 
in  physical  comfort  throughout  their  days. 

Who  with  his  soul   thoroughly  imbued   with  Christ's 


PLUTOCRACY  141 

conception  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brother- 
hood of  man  does  not  feel,  even  if  he  is  unable  to  define, 
the  great  moral  wrong  inhering  in  the  situation?  The 
very  basic  assumptions  of  capitalistic  and  selfish  monopoly 
are  an  affront  against  all  the  better  ideals  of  civilization. 
As  institutions  these  monopolies  are  a  menace  to  dem- 
ocratic government.  Their  practical  tendency  is  to 
install  over  the  very  life  of  the  nation  a  soulless, 
arrogant,  and  irresistible  oligarchy. 

No  less  able  and  eminent  an  authority  than  President 
Wilson  in  his  recent  articles  on  "The  New  Freedom" 
has  vigorously  voiced  the  dangers  inhering  in  the  situa- 
tion.    He  says: 

The  life  of  the  nation  has  grown  infinitely  variant.  It  does  not  center 
now  upon  questions  of  governmental  structure  or  of  the  distribution 
of  governmental  powers.  It  centers  upon  questions  of  the  very  structure 
and  operation  of  society  itself,  of  which  government  is  only  the  instru- 
ment. ...  A  new  nation  seems  to  have  been  created  which  the  old  formulas 
do  not  fit  or  afford  a  vital  interpretation  of .  .  .  .  There  is  a  sense  in  which 
in  our  day  the  individual  has  been  submerged.  .  .  .  While  most  men  are 
thus  submerged  in  the  corporation,  a  few,  a  very  few,  are  exalted  to  power 
which  as  individuals  they  could  never  have  wielded.  To-day  the  every- 
day relationships  of  men  are  largely  with  great  impersonal  concerns, 
with  organizations,  not  with  other  individual  men.  .  .  .  Our  laws 
still  deal  with  us  on  the  basis  of  the  old  system.  .  .  .  What  this  country 
needs  above  everything  else  is  a  body  of  laws  which  will  look  after  the 
men  who  are  on  the  make  rather  than  the  men  who  are  already  made.  .  .  . 
No  country  can  afford  to  have  its  prosperity  originated  by  a  small  con- 
trolling class.  ...  In  the  new  order  government  and  business  must  be 
associated  closely.  .  .  .  But  it  is  an  intolerable  thing  that  the  government 
of  the  republic  should  have  got  so  far  out  of  the  hands  of  the  people, 
should  have  been  captured  by  interests  which  are  special  and  not  general. 
In  the  train  of  this  capture  follow  the  troops  of  scandals,  wrongs,  inde- 
cencies, with  which  our  politics  swarm.  .  .  .  Why  are  we  in  the  presence, 
why  are  we  on  the  threshold,  of  a  revolution?  .  .  .  Don't  you  know  that 
this  country  from  one  end  to  the  other  believes  that  something  is  wrong? . . . 
We  are  in  a  temper  to  reconstruct  economic  society,  as  we  were  once 
in  a  temper  to  reconstruct  political  society,  and  political  society  itself 


i42      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

may  undergo  a  radical  modification  in  the  process.  .  .  .  We  are  upon  the 
eve  of  a  great  reconstruction.     It  calls  for  creative  statesmanship.1 

The  single  fact  which  I  wish  to  emphasize  in  this 
casual  discussion  of  the  selfishly  monopolistic  corpora- 
tions is  that  in  so  far  as  they  dominate  the  character 
and  policies  of  our  economic  civilization  they  stand 
directly  opposed  to  the  progress  of  vital  Christianity 
and  of  true  church  life  in  the  community.  Their  spirit 
and  policies  are  in  direct  antagonism  to  the  real  brother- 
hood of  man  in  Christ  Jesus.  These  statements  may 
seem  like  a  hard  arraignment;  but,  if  so,  the  arraignment 
is  intended  against  the  tendency  and  effect  of  a  certain 
type  of  institutions  rather  than  against  the  personal 
character  or  motives  of  individuals  who  may  be  interested 
in  promoting  these  institutions.  I  am  quite  aware  of 
all  that  may  be  said  in  commendation  of  great  benev- 
olences which  have  been  initiated  by  men  grown  rich 
through  the  monopolistic  corporation. 

I  know  something  of  the  vast  endowments  which 
from  the  same  general  sources  have  been  conferred 
upon  universities,  libraries,  hospitals,  and  other  benev- 
olent public  institutions.  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  great 
intrinsic  values  inhering  in  such  endowments  as  reen- 
forcing  needed  agencies  for  promoting  the  public  welfare. 
But,  after  all,  I  am  impressed  that,  in  the  light  of  a 
clear  and  unprejudiced  moral  judgment,  it  must  be 
conceded  that  the  very  ability  of  so  many  private  indi- 
viduals to  bestow  phenomenally  large  endowments  upon 
public  institutions  is  itself  a  symptom  of  an  unideal, 

1  While  having  read  with  sympathetic  appreciation  President  Wilson's  articles  in  the 
World's  Work,  I  am  indebted  for  the  quotations  in  the  above  form  to  an  article  by  Dr. 
Charles  J.  Bushnell,  in  the  American  Journal  of  Theology  for  October,  191 3. 


PLUTOCRACY  143 

an  essentially  abnormal,  condition  of  the  economic  world. 

With  reference  to  great  numbers  of  individuals  pro- 
moting and  benefiting  by  the  monopolistic  trust  both 
exceptional  ability  and  high  personal  character  must 
be  promptly  conceded.  That  they  are  conscientious, 
benevolent,  and  in  many  cases  men  of  rare  insight, 
men  often  of  exceptional  personal  and  social  charm, 
is  readily  to  be  admitted.  But  these  men  have  been 
intensely  educated  in  the  direction  of  their  own  pur- 
suits. They  see  things  in  their  own  light.  They  are 
largely  the  creation  of  the  very  interests  to  which  they 
have  so  fully  given  their  devotion.  The  very  interests 
which  have  absorbed  them,  and  the  exceptional  gains 
which  they  have  realized,  have  filled  their  vision  with  a 
lure  which  has  given  both  color  and  limitation  to  their 
social  and  moral  judgments. 

Not  all  great  capitalists  are  to  be  indiscriminately 
condemned.  They,  in  their  very  monopolistic  ambitions, 
in  their  essentially  selfish  modes  of  life,  in  their  practical 
isolation  of  themselves  into  a  select  oligarchy — in  these, 
and  in  kindred  qualities  so  conspicuously  represented 
in  the  lives  of  the  extremely  rich,  we  see  only  the  fateful 
product  of  a  plutocratic  philosophy.  That  such  men 
are  often  benevolent  is  a  testimony  to  their  essential 
humanity.  In  the  large  benefactions  which  they  now 
and  then  bestow  the  story  of  at  least  their  partial  triumph 
over  motives  which  would  prompt  them  to  be  utterly 
hard  and  sordid  is  told. 

I  recur  to  a  single  sentence  used  by  President  Wilson. 
Speaking  of  the  fact  that  the  government  of  the  republic 
has  been   so  largely   "captured  by  interests  which  are 


i44      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

special  and  not  general,"  he  says:  "In  the  train  of  this 
capture  follow  the  troops  of  scandals,  wrongs,  inde- 
cencies, with  which  our  politics  swarm."  President 
Wilson  speaks  as  a  man  of  large  observation  of,  and 
participation  in,  public  life.  Presumably,  he  is  not 
indulging  in  mere  rhetorical  fulminations.  He  knows 
something  of  methods  used  by  great  corporate  interests 
in  connection  with  politics  and  legislation. 

The  financial  interests  have  sought  and  secured  large 
political  control.  The  venal  voter  has  been  bribed  at 
the  ballot-box,  and  legislative  majorities  have  been 
purchased.  Through  practical  control  of  lawmaking 
bodies  great  sources  of  natural  wealth  have  been  as- 
signed to  corporate  interests  without  corresponding 
compensation  to  the  public  treasury  or  to  the  general 
welfare.  Exclusive  and  most  valuable  franchises  have 
been  secured  at  but  trifling  costs,  while  the  public,  who 
should  be  the  larger  sharer  in  the  benefits  of  these  fran- 
chises, is  forced  to  pay  high  tribute  to  these  private 
corporations  for  its  privileges.  The  press,  omnipresent 
in  influence,  and  which  ought  to  be  one  of  the  most 
free,  fearless,  and  illuminating  teachers  of  righteousness, 
which  ought  to  stand  in  unflinching  advocacy  of  the 
rights  of  all  men,  is  largely  venalized  by,  and  its  great 
powers  prostituted  to,  corporate  greed.  It  goes,  and 
should  go,  without  the  saying,  that,  morally  measured, 
there  are  grades  and  grades  of  corporate  interests.  But 
still  in  the  interests  of  greed  essentially  the  most  infamous 
and  powerful  combinations  are  effected.  The  liquor 
interest,  highly  capitalized,  is  not  only  enlisted  in  the 
murderous  mission  of  making  drunkards  by  the  whole- 


PLUTOCRACY  145 

sale,  but  it  is  in  leagued  alliance  with  the  traffickers 
in  prostitution  and  the  recruiting  agencies  of  white 
slavery.  Traffics  in  these  nefarious  missions  are  so 
lucrative  that  their  promoters  stop  not  short  of  attempts 
to  corrupt  the  municipal  courts,  and  to  bribe  the  officers 
of  public  safety  into  collusion  and  silence.  The  role 
of  iniquitous  traffics  and  of  evil  agencies,  all  instituted 
and  employed  in  the  interests  of  mammon,  is  too  long 
for  review.  The  whole  list  furnishes  a  dismal,  frightful, 
and  tragic  arraignment  of  human  nature. 

But  perhaps,  for  our  present  purpose,  the  most 
pertinent  phase  of  the  larger  question  is  that  which  is 
now  staged  in  the  relations  between  capital  and  labor. 
Aside  from  the  two  great  forces  which  may  not  improperly 
be  designated  as  capital  and  labor,  there  is  a  large  other 
section  which  is  sometimes  named  as  the  "middle  class." 
With  this  latter  class  we  need  not  here  concern  ourselves. 

In  the  last  sixty  years  the  wealth  of  this  nation  has 
increased  well  up  toward  two  thousand  per  cent.  Our 
present  national  wealth  does  not  fall  far,  if  any,  short 
of  $140,000,000,000.  This  figure  is  something  amazing, 
and  yet  it  is  likely  to  be  vastly  increased  in  near 
decades  to  come.  It  may  in  a  general  way  be  safely 
said  that  the  vast  wealth-producing  power  of  America 
came  hand  in  hand  with  the  general  introduction  of 
machinery.  To  the  economic  student  it  is  but  a 
truism  to  say  that  with  the  introduction  of  machinery 
the  relations  of  labor  to  capital  were  not  only  radically, 
but  well-nigh  universally,  changed. 

The  introduction  of  machinery  meant  the  passing  out 
of  the  private  artisan.     It  meant   the  advent   of  the 


i46     CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

big  factory  and  the  big  capitalistic  combination.  It 
was  the  prophecy,  quick  of  culmination,  of  what  we 
now  see,  namely,  upon  the  one  hand,  huge  corporations 
in  control  of  railroads,  factories,  and  all  the  implements 
of  production;  upon  the  other  hand,  a  vast  army  of  labor 
empty-handed,  waiting  at  the  gates  of  the  corporation 
to  sell  its  toil. 

The  situation  does  not  require  much  analysis.  It 
is  evident  that  in  any  industrial  conflict  the  corporation 
will  have  immense  advantage  over  labor.  Allan  L. 
Benson  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  "The  Stanley 
Steel  Committee's  investigation  showed  that  by  a  sys- 
tem of  interlocking  directorates,  eighteen  men  control 
$35,000,000,000  of  industrial  property."  The  corpora- 
tions are  in  position  to  set  the  price  both  upon  products 
and  upon  labor.  The  corporations,  without  reference 
to  larger  public  needs,  have  the  power  to  limit  production 
to  the  line  of  most  satisfactory  profit  to  their  directors. 
The  corporations  can  water  their  stock,  either  for  the 
purpose  of  selling  at  an  exorbitant  price  to  an  innocent 
public,  or  to  cover  up  the  appearance  of  earning  in- 
ordinate dividends  on  capital  invested. 

The  corporations  can  at  any  time  close  a  factory, 
and  thus  throw  a  thousand  men  out  of  employment, 
and  the  men  are  helpless.  The  corporations,  many 
of  them,  use  automatic  machinery  which  can  readily 
be  worked  by  women  and  children.  The  labor  of  women 
and  children  is  cheaper  than  that  of  men.  And  so  where 
the  State  has  not  interfered — and  the  State  has  inter- 
fered in  too  few  cases— delicate  women  and  sensitive 
growing  children  are  overtaxed  in  the  relentless  demand 


PLUTOCRACY  i47 

to  keep  pace  with  machinery.  The  corporations,  by 
the  monopoly  of  raw  material  and  control  of  the  markets, 
have  largely  succeeded  in  suppressing  competition  as 
against  themselves.  But  real  competition  is  still  left 
to  do  its  depressing  work  in  the  labor  world.  Skilled 
and  organized  labor  is  able  to  take  reasonable  care  of 
its  own  interests  in  the  wage  market,  though  its  margins 
of  surplus  are  always  narrow. 

But  aside  from  skilled  and  organized  labor  there  is 
always  a  vast  contingent  of  less  skilled  or  unskilled  labor 
which  is  absolutely  dependent  upon  employment  for 
daily  bread.  Under  corporate  regulation  of  the  labor 
market,  there  are  at  best  always  in  this  country  a  mil- 
lion unemployed  persons.  In  times  of  trade  depression 
this  number  is  likely  to  be  greatly  increased.  This 
means  that  with  certain  grades  of  labor,  at  times  with 
pretty  much  all  grades,  there  is  always  a  desperate 
condition  of  want.  The  laborer  is  compelled  to  sell 
his  labor  at  any  price  he  can  command,  however  meager 
the  price.  It  means  in  multitudes  of  cases  that  wives 
and  children  must  all  seek  some  outside  work  in  order 
that  the  family  may  live  at  all. 

There  is  an  enormous  aggregate  of  prosperity  in  the 
country,  but  as  between  the  corporations  and  the  labor 
world,  the  division  of  this  prosperity  is  inordinately 
one-sided.  The  representatives  of  the  corporations  are 
the  capitalists.  They  control  the  banks,  own  the  palaces, 
the  pleasure  yachts,  the  high-priced  automobiles,  and 
they  command  for  themselves  and  families  every  material 
comfort  and  luxury  which  money  may  purchase.  Their 
children  may  enjoy  the  most  costly  educational  advan- 


i48      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

tages,  all  the  benefits  of  travel,  and  they  are  recognized 
as  the  heirs  of  a  privileged  class. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  great  army,  outnumbering 
many  times  the  corporate  capitalists,  which  is  made 
up  of  simply  wage -earners.  This  army  neither  owns 
the  factories  in  which  It  toils,  nor  does  it  own  the  tools 
of  production.  It  is  made  up  of  empty-handed  workers. 
For  the  most  part,  it  has  no  ownership  in  the  humble 
dwellings  which  shelter  its  families.  Its  bank  account, 
at  best,  furnishes  but  a  frail  barrier  between  its  members 
and  the  disasters  of  want  and  sickness.  Its  children 
enter  life,  many  of  them  greatly  handicapped  by  poor 
physical  and  moral  inheritance.  Nearly  all  of  them 
are  under  the  social  and  industrial  doom  of  adversity. 
The  wages  of  the  rank  and  file  of  this  industrial  army 
are  inexorably  held  to  a  low  level,  not  even  in  the  most 
favorable  cases  such  as  at  all  proximately  to  permit 
such  expenditure  and  luxury  as  that  which  may  be 
easily  affordable  by  the  capitalist.  This  army  always 
marches  on  the  borders  of  dependence  and  want.  Its 
members  look  forward,  if  at  all,  to  an  old  age  when  they 
shall  either  be  the  wards  of  their  children  or  of  public 
charity.  When  the  slender  stipend  of  their  wages 
ceases  to  come,  multitudes  of  them  look  out  into  a  world, 
God  only  knows  how  dreary. 

And,  if  this  army  is  one  of  discontent,  who  shall  wonder! 
It  is  a  simple  irony  to  say  that  these  men  are  receiving 
far  better  wages,  and  they  enjoy  more  physical  comfort, 
than  were  ever  known  to  their  fathers.  If  this  were 
true,  it  would  scarcely  amount  to  a  mitigation  in  the 
case.     It  might  be  said  of  the  capitalists  that  they  too 


PLUTOCRACY  i49 

are  receiving  many  times  over  the  emoluments  which 
came  to  their  fathers,  and  for  this  reason  they  ought 
to  be  more  than  content.  They  ought  on  this  account 
promptly  to  initiate  policies  of  liberal  distribution  of 
their  surplus  revenues  for  the  benefit  of  their  less  priv- 
ileged neighbors 

The  truth  is  that  the  laborers  live  in  a  different  world 
from  that  with  which  their  fathers  were  familiar.  If 
in  this  age  of  multiplied  facilities  and  conveniences  of 
life,  factors  which  ought  to  be  within  the  reach  of  all, 
and  which  ought  to  add  real  values  to  every  life,  they 
were  content  to  live  just  as  their  fathers  did,  they  would 
be  less  human  than  they  are.  But  when  the  changed 
conditions  are  fairly  measured  it  does  not  appear  true 
that  the  modern  laborer  receives  better  wages  or  is 
better  conditioned.  The  scale  of  the  fathers'  living 
bore  no  comparison  with  the  necessitated  high  costs 
of  the  present  day.  The  father,  if  a  tradesman,  owned 
the  tools  of  his  craft,  had  his  own  workshop  and  his 
own  customers  The  worker  of  to-day  is  the  owner  of 
no  tools,  of  no  shop,  and  it  would  be  impossible  for 
him  to  compete  against  modern  machinery  for  customers 
in  any  craft. 

The  naked  and  tragic  fact  is  that  since  civilization 
began  there  has  been  no  class  of  nominally  free  workers 
who  have  been  more  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  an  im- 
personal, irresponsible,  and  irresistible  despotism  than 
are  the  laborers  to-day  under  corporate  employment. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  enlightened  writers,  analyzing 
carefully  the  whole  situation,  have  characterized  the 
domination    of    corporate    capital    over    labor    as    the 


i5o     CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

most  far-reaching  and  oppressive  despotism  known  to 
history. 

Many  millions  of  men,  citizens  in  America,  a  land 
of  abundant  fruitfulness,  witnessing  all  around  them 
the  rich  reveling  in  surplusage  and  luxury,  are  com- 
pelled to  know  that  themselves  and  their  children  are 
doomed  to  exclusion  from  any  generous  participation 
in  the  inordinate  revenues  appropriated  by  directorates 
to  whom  their  own  very  lives  and  services  are  given 
in  pawn  for  pitiable  stipends. 

And  does  anybody  really  wonder  that  the  army  of 
labor  is  an  army  of  discontent?  This  discontent  is 
not  only  universal,  but  it  is  mightily  prophetic.  It 
witnesses  eloquently  to  the  growing  democratic  sense 
of  the  value  of  human  rights.  It  is  a  revolt  of  the 
common  intelligence  against  all  social  and  industrial 
injustice.  It  is  a  revolt  that  will  not  lessen  in  volume 
or  energy.  Its  voice  is  sure  to  be  heard  and  heeded  at 
the  very  seats  of  corporate  power.  The  present  dis- 
content of  the  laboring  world  is  but  the  mere  whispering 
of  a  pent-up  power  which  carries  in  itself  the  moral 
dynamic  of  social  and  industrial  revolution.  May  God 
grant  that  in  this  field  Righteousness  and  Peace  shall 
come  together  for  early  and  decisive  counsel! 

But  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  the  Church?  Much, 
every  way.  The  Church,  for  one  thing,  is  regarded 
by  many  of  the  poor  as  a  luxury  not  to  be  afforded. 
If  they  cannot  pay  a  full  quota  for  its  financial  support, 
many  accept  the  alternative  of  detaching  themselves 
altogether.  The  pride  of  the  poor,  foolishly,  will  not 
brook,   even  before  the  altars  of  the  sanctuary,  social 


PLUTOCRACY  15 1 

distinctions  which  they  are  unable  to  ignore.  But, 
after  all,  it  is  not  so  much  poverty  which  holds  the  masses 
of  the  poor  in  alienated  separation  from  the  Church 
as  a  widely  prevalent  feeling  that  the  Church  is  not 
really  the  friend  of  the  poor,  that  it  does  not  seriously 
welcome  them  to  its  services,  and  that  it  is  willing  to 
make  no  great  sacrifices  for  the  purchase  of  their  wel- 
fare. There  is  a  wide  practical  conviction  among  wage- 
earners  that  the  churches  are  principally  conducted  by, 
and  in  the  interests  of,  the  privileged  classes.  They 
feel  that  the  money  paid  by  the  rich  for  the  support 
of  exclusive  churches  is  money  which  they  themselves 
have  really  earned,  and  the  resentment  thus  awakened 
is  more  widespread  than  it  is  pleasant  to  contemplate. 
The  poor  widely  feel  that  the  Church,  including  its 
ministry,  is  in  an  attitude  of  paying  undue  and  obse- 
quious honor  to  the  rich,  and  that  the  one  institution 
in  society,  within  whose  inclosures  the  rich  and  the  poor 
ought  to  be  treated  alike  as  the  common  children  of 
God,  is  in  an  offensive  measure  under  the  autocracy 
of  men  known  more  for  the  arrogance  of  wealth  than 
for  the  graces  of  Christian  character.  It  is  of  interest 
to  note  the  attention  which  this  fact  is  receiving  in 
current  literature. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  literalize  over-much  or  to  apply 
the  philosophy  of  Winston  Churchill's  Inside  the  Cup. 
Yet  the  plot  of  this  really  great  story  pretty  much  turns 
on  the  determined  purpose  of  a  single  arrogant  and 
unscrupulous  plutocrat  to  control  both  the  policy  of 
his  church  and  the  official  utterances  and  conduct  of 
its  rector.     Mr.  Harrison's  V.  V.'s  Eyes,  another  power- 


152      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

ful  novel  of  recent  issue,  turns  upon  the  contest  between 
a  wealth  both  heartless  and  shoddy  in  its  shameful 
treatment  of  poor  employees  in  the  "Heth  Works"  and 
the  spirit  of  a  poor  young  physician  of  transparently 
beautiful  Christian  character  who  gave  himself  in  con- 
tinual sacrifice  and  finally  to  a  tragic  death  in  the  service 
of  the  poor. 

The  hero  of  Basil  King's  The  Way  Home,  himself 
a  child  of  the  rectory,  incensed  by  the  treatment 
which  his  own  father  received  in  old  age  from  rich 
parishioners,  and  finally  entering  upon  business  life  with 
the  policy  of  considering  no  one's  interest  but  his  own, 
becoming  rich,  says  one  day  to  his  morally  sensitive 
wife  that  even  she  would  not  have  married  him  if  he 
had  not  had  money.  He  says  to  her:  "You  cared  for 
me  because  I  am  what  I  am.  And  I  am  what  I  am 
because  I've  got  money.  How  I  got  it  is  secondary 
to  you,  as  it  is  secondary  to  everybody  else.  The  world 
is  full  of  high-principled,  right-meaning  people  who 
haven't  words  enough  to  express  their  scorn  of  the  man 
who  grows  rich  by  what  they  choose  to  consider  im- 
proper means,  but  who,  when  it  comes  to  personal  deal- 
ings, can't  show  him  too  plainly  how  much  they  respect 
him." 

And  then  at  her  protest  he  adds:  "I  don't  put  you 
lower,  darling,  than  I  put  the  whole  order  of  bishops, 
priests,  and  deacons,  and  all  the  other  idealists  who 
are  so  easily  outraged  by  our  brutal  modern  ways  of 
growing  rich.  They're  awfully  fluent  in  words;  but 
once  get  rich,  and" — he  snapped  his  fingers — "you  can 
do  what  you  like  with  them." 


PLUTOCRACY  i53 

One  of  the  most  vivid  of  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward's 
recent  books,  Richard  Meynell,  furnishes  a  plot  which 
turns  upon  the  same  conditions  of  conflict  between 
plutocracy  and  the  individual's  right  of  free  thought 
as  are  involved  in  the  instances  above  cited. 

The  Rev.  William  Muir,  of  Scotland,  who  has  written 
one  of  the  ablest  books  which  have  yet  appeared  on  Chris- 
tianity and  Labor,  himself  the  son  of  an  artisan,  and 
having  had  in  a  long  pastoral  experience  close  and  sym- 
pathetic contact  with  labor,  says: 

There  is  nothing  which  is  more  fruitful  in  class  hatred  and  civil  war 
than  the  caste  which  still  prevails  in  the  Christian  Church.  Nothing 
has  done  more  to  promote  the  growth  of  the  anti-Christian  spirit  which 
prevails  among  many  sections  of  the  working  classes.  Every  new  set 
of  statistics  of  church  attendance  shows  an  ever  smaller  proportion  of 
the  community  at  public  worship,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  very 
rich  the  working  classes  seem  more  completely  estranged  than  any  other 
section.  In  some  towns  it  is  comparatively  rare  for  genuine  working- 
men  to  be  connected  with  a  church.  Even  what  are  paraded  as  working- 
class  congregations  are  composed  for  the  most  part,  so  far  as  the  men 
are  concerned,  and  they  are  always  the  minority,  of  clerks,  foremen, 
and  small  shopkeepers,  and  seldom  have  any  considerable  number  of 
artisans.  ...  As  a  workingman  who  has  been  among  workingmen  all  my 
days,  and  the  son  of  a  Christian  artisan,  I  cannot  pretend  to  be  surprised 
that  the  laborers  of  our  land  cannot  see  that  the  Church  of  the  living 
God  has  been  their  friend  and  champion,  as  it  should  have  been.  .  .  . 
Even  yet  caste  is  nowhere  more  powerful  than  in  the  Church  of  Christ. 
Nowhere  is  money  mightier,  and  it  seldom  happens  that  inconvenient 
questions  are  asked  as  to  how  the  money  was  made.  It  is  enough  that 
it  be  there  to  insure  respect  and  influence.  Nor  is  there  anywhere  more 
of  that  patronage  of  the  poor  which  is  quite  as  hateful  as  truckling  to 
the  rich.  As  for  the  results  of  all  this,  there  is  overwhelming  testimony 
to  the  alienation  of  the  working  classes  from  the  churches. 

To  these  testimonies  cited  from  the  prominent  current 
literature  of  the  day  indefinite  other  statements  could 
be  added  from  like  sources.  This  consensus  of  state- 
ment   concerning    the    undue    influence    of    plutocratic 


i54     CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

wealth  in  the  counsels  of  the  Church  is  no  accident. 
The  authors  furnishing  this  testimony  are  among  the 
foremost  seers  of  the  times.  They  have  high  gifts  for 
interpreting  the  social  and  industrial  thought-movements 
of  the  age  for  practical  busy  men  and  women.  This 
united  testimony  is  significant.  It  points  to  a  great 
fundamental  necessity  on  the  part  of  the  Church  to 
revise  its  own  spirit  and  methods.  It  is  really  a  call 
to  the  Church  to  seek  renewal  of  its  life  in  the  Spirit 
of  its  Master. 


SOCIALISM 


155 


Competition,  the  hope  of  definite  personal  reward,  and  the  fear  of 
definite  personal  loss,  which  experience  has  shown  to  be  extremely  power- 
ful forces  in  economic  life,  would  either  disappear  or  be  greatly  diminished 
under  Socialism,  and  the  Socialist  is  unable  to  provide  adequate  sub- 
stitutes. .  .  .  The  evidence  that  the  Socialist  movement  is  unfriendly, 
if  not  actively  hostile,  to  religion,  and  that  the  Socialist  philosophy  is 
incompatible  with  religious  convictions,  is  overwhelming. — Professor 
John  Augustine  Ryan. 

The  fact  is  that  Socialism  is  the  necessary  spiritual  product  of  cap- 
italism. It  has  been  formulated  by  that  class  which  has  borne  the  sins 
of  capitalism  in  its  own  body  and  known  them  by  heart.  It  stands  for 
the  holy  determination  of  that  wronged  and  embittered  class  to  eliminate 
those  sins  forever  from  the  social  life  of  mankind.  Thus,  Socialism  is 
the  historical  Nemesis  of  capitalism  and  follows  it  like  its  shadow.  The 
only  influence  that  can  long  seal  the  mind  of  the  industrial  working  class 
against  the  doctrines  of  Socialism  is  the  power  of  religion  in  the  hands 
of  a  strong  Church. — Professor  Walter  Rauschenbusch. 

What  Socialism  seems  to  believe,  and  to  base  upon,  is  the  tenet  that 
human  nature  has  already  attained,  and  is  already  perfect.  If  all  men 
were  true,  pure,  kind,  honest,  industrious,  self-denying,  some  kind  of 
Socialist  state  might  be  organized  in  a  month.  But  in  such  an  event 
the  world  would  neither  need  nor  desire  Socialism.  Any  kind  of  state, 
even  the  most  purely  individualistic,  would  be  efficient.  The  rich  and 
the  poor  would  meet  together  and  the  Lord  would  be  the  Maker  of  them 
all.  But  so  long  as  some  men  are  evil-minded,  and  foul  in  desire,  and 
vile  in  habit,  Socialism,  of  the  kind  commended  to  us,  is  impossible. — 
W.  M.  Clow,  D.D. 


156 


CHAPTER  IX 

SOCIALISM 

A  force,  and  a  rapidly  growing  one,  which  stoutly 
challenges  popular  interest  as  against  the  Church,  is 
Socialism.  Socialism  purposes  to  secure  its  end  by 
political  methods.  It  is,  therefore,  essentially  a  polit- 
ical movement.  As  such,  up  to  the  present  time,  it 
has  secured  far  greater  volume  and  momentum  in  Europe 
than  in  America.  It  has  been  represented  in  the  German 
Parliament  for  about  forty-five  years,  but  in  all  other 
countries  it  does  not  date  back  at  farthest  beyond  twenty- 
five  years.  In  the  United  States  it  entered  the  field 
as  a  distinct  political  movement  in  1892,  polling  at 
that  election  21,164  votes.  In  19 12  the  party  cast 
900,672  votes. 

In  1867  the  socialistic  votes  of  the  world  did  not 
exceed  30,000.  To-day  the  socialistic  vote  of  the  world 
exceeds  10,000,000.  The  movement  now  commands 
recognition  in  the  public  life  of  at  least  twenty-six  na- 
tions. It  presents  one  of  the  most  compact  and  well- 
systematized  organisms  known  to  the  modern  world. 
In  every  nation  in  which  it  is  organized  its  party  roll 
is  made  up  on  the  basis  of  dues-paying,  active  and  per- 
manent membership.  The  national  organizations  not 
only  have  their  State  conventions  as  often  as  may  seem 
required,  but  in  every  three  years  there  is  held  an  Inter- 
national   Congress    for    joint    deliberation    and    action. 

157 


158     CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

An  International  Socialist  Bureau  composed  of  all 
national  parties,  meeting  periodically,  transacts  its  bus- 
iness through  a  local  executive  committee  and  a  permanent 
secretary.  It  is  the  boast  of  this  organization  that  it 
can  mobilize  a  larger  force  than  any  single  government 
in  the  world. 

Nearly  all  the  organized  armies  of  labor — the  trade- 
unionists,  the  cooperative  movements,  and  others, 
numbering  in  all  many  millions — are  lined  up  behind 
Socialism,  "acting  in  accord  with  it  on  all  questions 
of  great  public  importance."  It  is  of  interest  to  note 
that  in  the  United  States  alone  there  are  now  more  than 
three  hundred  publications  issued  distinctively  in  the 
interests  of  Socialism.  Five  of  these  are  daily  news- 
papers, ten  are  monthly  magazines,  and  the  rest  are 
weeklies.  While  most  of  these  are  issued  in  English, 
yet  publications  appear  wherever  a  foreign  language 
is  much  in  vogue  in  the  country.  The  above  facts, 
for  which  I  acknowledge  a  principal  indebtedness  to 
Mr.  Morris  Hillquit,  a  recognized  authority  on  the 
subject,  will  for  our  purpose  sufficiently  represent  the 
trend  of  Socialistic  growth.  It  is  a  movement  to  which 
by  no  means  can  either  the  Christian  or  political  fore- 
caster afford  indifference. 

For  definement  of  what  Socialism  really  means,  I 
quote  what  is  probably  Mr.  Hillquit's  most  recent  utter- 
ance on  the  subject: 

As  a  practical  movement  Socialism  stands  primarily  for  industrial 
readjustment.  It  seeks  to  secure  greater  planfulness  in  the  production 
of  wealth  and  greater  equity  in  its  distribution.  Concretely  stated, 
the  Socialist  program  agitates  a  reorganization  of  the  existing  industrial 
system  on  the  basis  of  collective  or  national  ownership  of  the  social  tools. 


SOCIALISM  iS9 

It  demands  that  the  control  of  the  machinery  of  wealth-creation  be  taken 
from  the  individual  capitalist  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  nation, 
to  be  organized  and  operated  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  people.  The 
program  calls  for  radical  changes  in  the  existing  industrial  machinery, 
political  structure,  and  social  relations.  The  form  of  society  which 
would  result  from  such  changes  is  usually  designated  in  the  literature 
on  the  subject  as  the  social  state,  or  the  Socialist  ideal. 

From  a  comparison  of  numerous  definitions,  the  above, 
I  judge,  is  as  representative  and  accurate  a  statement 
of  the  basic  philosophy  of  Socialism  as  can  be  found 
in  so  brief  compass. 

It  must  be  promptly  admitted  that  the  Socialist  creed 
amplified  gives  expression  to  many  nobly  humane,  and 
even  Christian,  ideals.  Socialism  is  opposed  to  war 
in  all  forms,  national  or  industrial.  Its  apostles  claim 
that  within  very  recent  years  it  has  prevented  the 
occurrence  of  more  than  one  international  war.  At 
the  outbreak  of  the  Italian-Turkish  war  the  prime  minister 
of  Turkey  officially  submitted  a  memorial  to  the  Inter- 
national Socialist  Bureau,  at  Brussels,  asking  for  the 
intervention  of  the  Socialists  in  behalf  of  his  outraged 
country. 

Socialism  would  abrogate  all  industrial  strife  by 
removing  its  causes.  It  proceeds  upon  the  unyielding 
assumption  that  in  the  existing  order,  and  inevitably  so, 
capitalism  and  labor  are  aligned  against  each  other 
as  two  separate  and  irreconcilably  antagonistic  forces. 
That  in  this  irrepressible  conflict  capitalism,  by  reason 
of  controlling  the  appliances  and  tools  of  profit-making^ 
has  labor  at  an  immense  disadvantage. 

The  industries  of  our  country  are  rapidly  concentrating  in  the  hands 
of  an  ever-diminishing  number  of  powerful  financial  concerns.  The 
trusts,  monopolies,  and  gigantic  industrial  combinations  are  coming  to 


160     CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

be  ruling  factors  in  the  life  of  the  nation,  industrial,  political,  and  spirit- 
ual, and  the  masses  of  the  people  are  sinking  into  a  condition  of  ever- 
greater  dependence.  The  number  of  propertyless  wage-earners  is  on 
the  increase;  their  material  existence  is  growing  more  and  more  pre- 
carious, and  the  spirit  of  dissatisfaction  and  revolt  is  developing  among 
them.  The  relations  between  the  classes  of  producers  and  the  employ- 
ing classes  are  marked  by  intense,  though  not  always  conscious,  class- 
antagonism  and  by  overt  class  struggles.  .  .  .  There  is  no  more  harmony 
between  privately  owned  capital  and  wage-earning  labor  than  there  is 
between  wolf  and  lamb.1 

The  conditions  of  conflict  as  set  forth  in  the  above 
are  universally  assumed  by  Socialists  as  dire  facts  in 
our  present  civilization.  Socialism  would  do  away 
with  these  conditions  by  making  impossible  the  private 
ownership  of  the  appliances  and  tools  of  profit -making 
industries.  It  would  hasten  the  day  when  all  large 
private  fortunes  would  be  done  away  with.  Just  the 
process  by  which  this  should  be  effected  is  not  altogether 
clear,  even  from  socialistic  utterances.  It  might  be 
inferred  that  some  Socialists  think  the  evil  of  private 
fortunes  should  be  eliminated  by  one  bold  act  of  govern- 
ment confiscation,  transferring  these  fortunes  at  once 
to  national  control  for  the  common  good.  By  others 
it  is  advocated  that  a  large  tax  should  be  levied  against 
these  estates  year  by  year,  effecting  their  early  absorption 
into  the  public  treasury.  Still  others  advocate  the 
purchase  by  the  State  of  all  corporate  and  private  prop- 
erties of  a  wealth-producing  character. 

In  any  event,  it  is  not  proposed  in  the  socialistic 
state  that  there  shall  exist  large  private  fortunes.  Either 
by  taxation,  or  by  some  system  of  government  limita- 
tion, it  will  be  secured  that  all  citizens  will  stand  on  a 

»  Hillquit. 


SOCIALISM  161 

plane  of  equality  in  possession  of  the  fruits  of  wealth- 
producing  factors. 

The  socialistic  scheme  proposes  many  humane  factors. 
It  suggests  the  adequate  care  of  the  sick  in  hospitals 
or  in  the  home,  institutions  in  which  the  incompetent, 
unfortunates,  and  the  helpless  shall  be  amply  cared 
for,  and  it  calls  for  old-age  pensions.  It  pledges  itself 
to  bestow  upon  every  productive  man,  woman,  and  child 
an  adequate  living  income.  It  suggests  special  support 
for  mothers,  so  that  they  may  meet  the  expenses  of  them- 
selves and  children  independently  of  husband  or  father. 

It  promises  art  galleries,  parks,  public  baths,  cheap 
transportation,  and  all  sorts  of  attractions  and  utilities 
to  meet  the  common  tastes  and  needs.  It  proposes 
a  democracy  of  education  for  the  childhood  and  youth 
of  the  nation.  It  purposes  shortened  hours  of  labor, 
and  large  margins  of  leisure  for  all  workers.  It  believes 
that  by  bringing  to  the  common  life  conditions  of  ma- 
terial sufficiency  and  comfort  it  will  thereby  greatly 
reduce  the  evils  of  intemperance  and  prostitution.  So- 
cialism has  a  mightily  optimistic  faith  in  itself.  It 
promises  every  material  good  which  may  seem  essential 
to  human  welfare. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  for  the  poor  and  toiling 
masses  who  confide  in  its  gospel  Socialism  presents  a 
program  of  great  attractiveness.  Not  even  the  gospel 
of  Christ  proposes  at  first  hand  any  such  material 
paradise  as  that  which  Socialism  pledges.  And  it  may 
be  emphasized  that  much  of  what  is  promised  is,  from 
the  standpoint  of  Christian  idealism,  of  a  highly 
approvable  and  valuable  order. 


162      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

But  now,  having  sought  fairly  to  state  the  positions 
of  Socialism,  and  having  conceded  full  approval  of, 
and  sympathy  with,  many  of  its  ideals,  I  still  must  judge 
Socialism  at  best  as  a  veritable  Utopia.  It  is  an  iridescent 
and  delusive  dream.  It  has  been  well  named  the  "great 
illusion."  Its  whole  scheme  presents  one  maze  of  im- 
practicabilities. 

Consider,  for  instance,  the  socialistic  scheme  of  prop- 
erty. All  profit-making  appliances  and  tools  are  to 
belong  to  the  state,  and  by  the  state  are  to  be  admin- 
istered for  the  common  good.  Just  how  far  in  the 
socialistic  state  private  ownership  of  material  value  is 
to  be  permissible  is  not  clear.  But  if  individuals  are 
entitled  to  ownership  in  such  measure  as  may  be  pur- 
chased from  the  thriftily  saved  surplus  of  their  own 
earnings,  it  is  evident  that  values  so  secured  will  by 
so  much  be  in  addition  to,  and  distinct  from,  property 
controlled  and  administered  by  the  state.  By  so  much, 
private  property,  while  it  may  be  taxed  for  state  pur- 
poses, will  not  be  directly  under  state  administration. 
It  is  thus  clear  that  there  will  be  a  certain  margin  of 
property,  the  proceeds  of  which  will  not  be  administered 
by  the  state  for  the  common  good. 

Now,  let  us  suppose  that  the  wealth,  public  and 
private,  of  the  United  States  amounts  to  $140,000,000,000. 
This  is  probably  an  outside  estimate.  We  have  ninety- 
five  millions  of  inhabitants.  If  the  entire  property  of  the 
nation  were  distributed  equally,  there  would  be  for  each 
individual  a  value  of  something  less  than  $1,475.  Differ- 
ently stated,  if  the  government  were  administrator,  it 
would  have  for  taking  care  of  every  man,  woman,  and 


SOCIALISM  163 

child,  a  capital  approaching  $1,475  per  person.  On  the 
supposition  that  all  this  capital  had  an  earning  capacity 
of  five  per  cent,  the  income  that  could  be  allotted  for 
each  person  would  be  less  than  $74  per  year.  This 
certainly  would  not  mean  wealth  for  the  individual. 

But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  vast  proportion  of  this 
wealth  could  not  be  made  to  yield  any  direct  income, 
so  that  there  would  be  available  far  less  than  $74  per 
capita.  Evidently,  the  citizenship  of  the  socialistic 
state  could  neither  be  made  up  of  private  capitalists 
nor  idlers.  There  would  not  be  available  wealth  to 
permit  a  citizenship  of  capitalists.  The  limitation  of 
capital  would  compel  a  nation  of  laborers.  Only  labor 
could  produce  the  necessities  of  life  for  a  people  so  placed. 
I  understand  clearly  that  it  inheres  in  the  socialistic 
philosophy  that  all  able-bodied  citizens  shall  be  pro- 
ducers— laborers.  To  the  question,  "What  will  you  do 
with  the  work-shy  and  the  lazy?"  the  answer  of  the 
plain  Socialist  was,  "Shoot  them."  Socialism  in  this 
respect  agrees  with  the  precepts  of  the  New  Testament, 
"If  a  man  will  not  work,  neither  let  him  eat."  But 
on  the  theory  of  all  wealth-producing  agencies  being 
administered  by  the  nation  for  the  common  good,  one 
wonders  whether  the  abundant  leisure  which  socialistic 
writers  promise  to  labor  amounts  to  anything  more 
than  a  delusive  dream. 

Under  existing  conditions,  there  is  a  vast  amount  of 
capital  so  invested  as  to  be  susceptible  neither  of  division 
nor  income  for  the  common  good.  A  multitude  of  private 
and  costly  homes  could  be  cited  as  illustrative  of  this 
truth.     Indeed,  under  the  present  order,  an  order  which 


1 64      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

has  come  through  a  long  process  of  evolution,  very  many 
of  the  products  of  invested  capital  do  not  at  all  lend 
themselves  to  the  socialistic  state.  If  popular  suffrage 
should  overwhelmingly  place  the  national  government 
in  the  hands  of  Socialists,  not  much  imagination  is 
required  to  foresee  that  to  adjust  existing  conditions 
to  the  socialistic  ideal  would  prove  for  the  socialistic 
statesman  a  most  bewildering  and  chaotic  task.  So- 
cialism, in  the  light  of  its  most  perfected  theoretical 
development,  is,  as  applied  to  the  state,  an  untried 
theory.  It  is  perfectly  safe  to  assume  that  Socialism 
has  thus  far  furnished  no  rational  or  conclusive  demon- 
stration of  its  fitness  as  a  supreme  modus  for  the  state. 

If  wealth-producing  factors  are  to  be  under  state 
direction,  it  is  evident  that  labor  must  also  be  under 
the  same  direction.  This  must  necessitate  the  dis- 
tribution of  labor  also  as  a  matter  of  state  control.  Labor 
must  be  distributed  to  the  points  where  required  work 
can  best  be  done.  It  is  not  easy  under  such  a  theory 
to  escape  the  suggestion  of  at  least  a  quasi-military 
direction  which  shall  practically  assign  to  whole  armies 
of  men  not  only  location  of  both  their  work  and  hours, 
but  as  well  the  very  kind  of  work  which  they  shall  be 
permitted  to  do.  It  seems  self-evident  that  under  such 
a  system,  no  more  than  under  existing  conditions,  could 
labor  escape  the  domination  of  the  boss.  Work,  espe- 
cially the  kind  of  work  which  would  be  required  for 
the  collective  interests  of  the  state,  would  not  be  spon- 
taneously performed.  It  would  have  to  be  done  under 
the  direction  of  authority  and  leadership. 

Such  work  might  be  under  the  supervision  of  duly 


SOCIALISM  165 

appointed  commissions.  But  under  whatever  method, 
it  would  be  tantamount  to  the  same  old  regime  of 
director  and  directed,  of  master  and  servant,  of  overseer 
and  toiler.  There  is  inevitable  in  the  situation  a  grim 
suggestion  of  the  unescapable  thralldom  of  labor  under 
some  kind  of  mastership. 

The  socialistic  visionaries  are  not  sufficiently  reck- 
oning with  the  facts  of  human  nature.  The  most 
plausible  elaborations  of  Socialism  more  than  suggest 
that  the  same  kind  of  rivalries,  dissensions,  and  dis- 
contents will  continue  to  exist  which  under  the  present 
social  and  industrial  structures  work  disorder  and  dis- 
aster. The  practical  inauguration  of  Socialism  would 
not  only  work  sore  disillusion  to  its  promoters,  but  it 
would  bring  perilous,  if  not  incurable,  chaos  to  the 
normal  order  of  society. 

It  may  be  admitted  that  many  departments  of  purely 
public  service  might  be  successfully  administered  under 
socialistic  ideals.  The  postal  systems,  railroads,  telegraph 
and  telephone  service,  water,  gas,  and  electric  supplies, 
police  service,  the  common  highways,  and  very  many 
other  agencies  which  are  organized  purely  in  the  interests 
of  public  needs — these  might  all  conceivably  be  managed 
under  some  system  of  governmental  commissions.  But 
from  a  high  social  and  moral  standpoint,  the  finest 
and  most  valuable  possessions  for  many  lives  are  of 
a  character  which  can  neither  be  secured  nor  regulated 
by  any  public  supervision. 

The  selection  of  a  wife,  the  choice  of  one's  calling, 
the  encouragement  and  development  of  art,  poetry,  the 
identification  and  direction  in  the  young  for  effectiveness 


166      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

in  literature,  science,  and  invention,  the  assurance  of 
the  adequate  creation  and  endowment  of  institutions 
for  research  and  the  advancement  of  knowledge — all 
this,  and  vastly  more,  the  very  factors  which  give  embel- 
lishment and  value  to  civilization  itself,  might  just 
as  well  be  left  with  a  police  system,  as  to  the  regulation 
of  a  public  commission  under  a  socialistic  state.  Per- 
sonal liberty  so  exercised  as  not  to  interfere  with  the 
common  rights  of  others,  should  be  treated  as  a  thing 
of  inalienable  and  invincible  right. 

The  very  genius  of  the  socialistic  state  is  at  many 
vital  points  not  only  repressive  of  individual  liberty, 
but  it  indicates  no  scope  or  opportunity  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  exceptional  individuality.  The  development 
of  exceptional  personalities  calls  for  exceptional  con- 
ditions. The  guarantee  of  such  conditions  nowhere 
appears  in  the  socialistic  program.  The  vision  of  So- 
cialism itself  does  not  have  its  genesis  in  views  which 
have  intelligently  or  sympathetically  embraced  the 
highest  refinements  of  civilization.  The  promoters  of 
Socialism  have  been  largely  absorbed  in  trying  to  invent 
a  system  which  will  yield  to  all  classes,  irrespective  of 
social  or  intellectual  rank,  abundant  bread,  comfortable 
shelter,  and  a  generous  leisure.  The  importance  of 
these  aims  should  not  be  underestimated.  But  they 
only  partially,  and  meagerly,  represent  life's  values. 
Man  is  not  to  live  by  bread  alone.  Nor  does  his  life 
consist  in  the  abundance  of  material  possessions.  Life 
is  something  more  than  meat,  more  than  raiment. 

The  prophets  of  Socialism  who  are  promising  a  ma- 
terial paradise  for  the  world's  toilers  seem  of  limited 


SOCIALISM  167 

vision.  They  have  no  seerlike  grasp  upon,  they  give 
no  sufficient  emphasis  to,  either  the  attainments,  the 
possibilities  of,  or  the  provisional  needs  for,  the  cultural 
life  of  humanity.  Their  scheme,  measured  at  its  largest 
and  interpreted  at  its  best,  falls  woefully  short  of  pro- 
viding adequate  nurture  for  the  social,  intellectual, 
artistic,  and  moral  wants  of  human  society.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  charge  other  than  entire  good  faith  to  the 
prophets  of  Socialism  as  they  make  their  optimistic 
pledges  to  the  world.  But  the  possibility  of  their  making 
good  these  pledges  is  to  be  judged  in  the  light  of  general 
experience,  and  on  the  observed  principles  of  human 
conduct.  The  promises  may  be  uttered  with  all  the 
emphasis  of  sincerity,  but,  tested  by  the  world's  larger 
needs,  they  are  likely  to  prove  as  elusive  as  the  voice 
of  a  siren. 

Private  wealth,  and  in  generous  amounts,  will  be 
requisite  to  initiate  and  to  endow  the  needed  agencies 
of  human  culture.  Legislative  committees,  senates  and 
congresses  are  proverbially  perfunctory  and  tardy  in 
authorizing  grants  for  the  public  benefit.  Their  most 
commendable  benefactions  are  usually  those  of  com- 
promise, shaped  by  concessions  made  in  order  to  secure 
a  majority  support  to  the  authorizing  measure.  The 
private  owner,  or  a  combination  of  private  owners  like- 
minded,  having  clear  vision  and  philanthropic  purposes, 
will  always  be  needed  to  pioneer  the  way  for,  and  to 
lay  the  foundations  of,  such  cultural  institutions  as 
will  ever  be  demanded  by  the  world's  growing  ideals. 

To  depend  upon  legislative  commissions  to  take  the 
initiative  in  providing  for  such  institutions  would  be 


168      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

like  tying  the  world's  advancement  to  the  wheelless 
and  dragging  chariots  of  the  Egyptians.  This  is  not 
to  declare  either  the  desirability  or  the  legitimacy  of 
inordinate  private  fortunes.  There  is  something  in- 
herently wrong  in  an  industrial  condition  which  will 
permit  one  man  on  the  avenue  to  be  the  possessor  of 
$400,000,000,  while  a  million  men,  within  a  few  miles 
of  his  palatial  residence,  are  in  daily  struggle  for  bread 
to  feed  their  hunger. 

Let  there  by  all  means  be  a  system  of  taxation,  drastic 
if  needs  be,  which  shall  make  it  forever  hereafter  impos- 
sible for  any  person  to  amass  so  large  a  private  fortune. 
But  between  this  condition,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  de- 
mands of  Socialism  upon  the  other,  there  would  be  little 
to  choose.  It  is  not  easy  to  find  terms  by  which  fittingly 
to  characterize  the  evils  of  monopolistic  and  selfish 
wealth.  It  is  also  true  that  the  socialistic  philosophy 
has  not  yet  furnished  demonstration  of  its  ability  to 
meet  more  than  the  merest  segment  of  human  needs. 

Essential  inequity  inheres  fundamentally  in  the  social- 
istic scheme.  Socialism  is  so  absorbed  in  looking  after 
the  needs  of  the  under-man,  its  entire  interest  is  so 
confined  to  this  man,  that  thus  far  it  has  theoretically 
failed  to  suggest  due  provision  for  those  who  are  not 
under-men.  It  fails  in  promise  of  due  incentive  for 
action,  or  suitable  reward  for  achievement,  for  those 
who  under  the  present  order  of  society  and  industry 
are  proving  themselves  exceptional  benefactors.  Per- 
sons have  lived,  and  others  will  live,  who  at  large  sac- 
rifice of  ordinary  comforts  have  wrought  out  inventions 
which  have  proved  of  inestimable  value  to  entire  civiliza- 


SOCIALISM  169 

tions.  Here  is  a  man  who  in  personal  poverty  and 
with  incredible  toil  makes  a  scientific  discovery  by 
which  the  knowledge  of  mankind  is  greatly  enriched. 
Copernicus,  Newton,  and  Darwin,  in  a  hand-to-hand 
struggle  with  nature's  mysteries,  gave  to  the  world  a 
new  learning. 

The  modern  sciences,  sciences  which  are  dissipating 
ignorance,  destroying  superstition,  flooding  nature's  dark 
places  with  light,  giving  to  man  a  vast  new  knowledge 
of  himself,  yielding  for  the  exploration  of  human  thought 
a  new  universe  of  ever-growing  wonders — all  these  are 
the  creations  largely  of  lone  toilers  in  cloister,  laboratory, 
or  in  some  open  field  of  nature. 

What  incentive  does  Socialism  thus  far  offer  for  such 
high  pursuits?  What  commensurate  rewards  is  it  pre- 
pared to  bestow  upon  men  of  exceptional  brain  and 
genius,  men  without  whom,  as  all  history  bears  testi- 
mony, the  race  will  make  no  material,  intellectual,  or 
moral  progress.  And  if  some  enthusiastic  socialistic 
writer  should  pledge  most  ample  rewards  for  such  workers, 
what  hostages  can  he  furnish  in  assuring  the  fulfillment 
of  his  pledge?  Let  Socialism  with  its  materialistic  ideals 
prevail,  and  the  very  inventive  and  inspirational  men, 
men  who  are  the  real  initiators  in  all  progress,  would 
be  under  the  handicap  of  an  unsympathetic  and 
obstructive  regime. 

But  aside  from  consideration  of  exceptional  and  con- 
structive talent,  the  socialistic  philosophy  does  not 
give  fair  encouragement  to  the  virtues  of  ordinary  thrift. 
Here  are  two  laborers  of  equal  opportunity,  and  in  gen- 
eral   with    equal    demands    upon    their    abilities.     The 


170      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

one  is  industrious,  temperate,  frugal.  He  practices  the 
creed  of  plain  living  and  high  thinking.  He  is  con- 
scientious in  discharge  of  his  daily  duties,  reads  good 
books,  makes  for  himself  a  bank  account,  and  earns 
a  position  of  respect  and  influence  among  men.  The 
other  man  is  a  free  liver.  He  is  a  spendthrift,  reckless 
of  his  personal  reputation  and  influence.  He  is  a  patron 
of  the  saloon,  and  the  higher  interests  of  his  own  family- 
are  sacrificed  to  his  vicious  courses  of  living.  Now, 
Socialism,  as  a  governmental  scheme,  treats  both  these 
men  alike.  They  are  to  have  equal  opportunities  and 
equal  rewards.  Socialism  as  a  theory  is  not  adjustive 
to  the  social  and  moral  deserts  or  ill  deserts  of  individuals. 
Its  very  basic  and  central  philosophy  precludes  it  from 
dealing  with  society  on  the  plane  of  moral  values.  But 
to  put  two  men  of  diverse  habits,  as  indicated,  on  the 
plane  of  equality  is  a  moral  absurdity.  The  one  de- 
serves well  of  society  and  is  clearly  entitled  to  the  benefits 
of  his  material  thrift.  The  other  has  forfeited  the 
respect  of  his  fellowmen,  and,  if  he  is  a  material  bankrupt, 
for  this  condition  he  has  no  one  to  blame  but  himself. 
Sane  moral  reason  can  by  no  possibility  put  these  men 
on  a  par.  They  are  wide  apart,  both  in  their  personal 
characters  and  merits. 

Socialism  at  best  is  but  theoretical.  It  has  no  fixed 
thought-status.  Its  boldest  position  has  time  and  again 
been  driven  into  retreat  under  critical  fire.  Mr.  H.  G. 
Wells,  in  The  Great  State,  a  book  which  gives  varied 
elaboration  of  the  socialistic  ideals,  says,  frankly: 

The  final  form  which  Socialism  may  take  cannot  as  yet  be  set  down. 
Its  problems  have  not  yet  been  clearly  stated.     The  adjustments  which 


SOCIALISM  i7i 

are  required  cannot  be  foreseen.  Its  economics  demand  a  reconsidera- 
tion. The  difficulties  of  its  administration  and  government,  and  especially 
the  terrifying  number  of  its  army  of  officials,  are  riddles  without  answer 
from  any  quarter.  All  that  can  be  said  is  that  the  goal  is  a  state  where 
every  one  shall  be  well  fed,  well  housed,  well  played,  and  as  happy  as 
men  can  be  made  who  must  face  the  unescapable  sternness  of  life. 

Mr.  Hillquit  in  one  of  his  latest  interviews  says: 

There  is  nothing  sacred  in  the  writings  even  of  the  founders  of  the 
modern  Socialist  philosophy.  Some  of  the  economic  doctrines  of  Ferdinand 
Lassalle,  and  many  cardinal  planks  of  his  practical  program,  have  been 
unable  to  withstand  the  test  of  experience  and  criticism,  and  have  been 
discarded  by  the  Socialist  movement.  Some  of  the  expressed  views  of 
Marx  and  Engels  have  been  modified  by  their  Socialist  followers,  and 
generally  the  Socialist  movement  is  constantly  engaged  in  revising  its 
creed  as  well  as  its  tactics.  Socialism  is  a  modern,  progressive  movement 
engaged  in  practical,  everyday  struggles,  and  it  cannot  escape  the  in- 
fluence of  changing  social  conditions  or  growing  economic  knowledge. 
The  International  Socialist  Movement  is  still  Marxian,  because  the  fun- 
damental social  and  economic  doctrines  of  Karl  Marx,  his  collaborators 
and  disciples,  still  hold  good  in  the  eyes  of  the  vast  majority  of  Socialists; 
but  in  the  details  of  its  methods  and  modes  of  action  the  Socialist  move- 
ment to-day  is  quite  different  from  what  it  was  in  the  days  of  Marx. 

Socialism  proposes  a  radical  change  of  the  world's 
industrial  order,  a  change  which  will  most  drastically 
affect  all  the  social  conditions  of  existing  civilizations. 
The  end  it  seeks  in  this  stupendous  program  is  to  elevate 
all  the  poor  to  a  plane  of  plenteous  living.  It  proposes 
a  task  in  itself  of  immeasurable  difficulty,  yet  frankly 
acknowledging  that  it  does  not  clearly  see  the  methods 
by  which  it  is  to  be  done,  much  less  does  it  have  any 
definite  forecast  of  the  momentous  consequences  of  weal 
or  disaster  which  must  ensue  upon  this  world-change. 
The  magnitude  of  the  proposition  is  equaled  only  by 
its  audacity.  It  is  like  inviting  the  human  family  to 
embark  on  an  untried  ship,  upon  an  uncharted  sea. 
Upon  the  quarter-deck  there  is  no  experienced  admiral, 


1 72      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

and  beyond  the  stormy  outlook  there  is  no  definite 
haven  of  safety,  no  assured  lands  of  plenty  and  peace. 
From  a  Christian  viewpoint,  the  final  word  to  be 
said  about  Socialism  is  that  it  is  materialistic  in  its 
philosophy.  It  is  fatally  lacking  in  the  incentive  and 
transforming  power  of  high  moral  and  spiritual  ideals. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  in  the  physical  betterments 
which  it  proposes  for  society  there  is  great  theoretical 
allurement.  It  were,  indeed,  a  consummation  devoutly 
to  be  wished,  if  from  the  common  bounty  every  table 
could  be  supplied  with  wholesome  food,  and  to  all  chil- 
dren could  be  offered  warm  clothing  and  a  high  nurture 
of  the  schools.  But  in  proposing  all  this  Socialism  has 
been  absolutely  blind  to  the  imperative  needs  of  the  moral 
and  spiritual  in  men,  needs  which  if  left  unmet  will 
leave  civilization  in  the  condition  of  the  old  Roman 
world  as  described  by  Arnold: 

On  that  hard  pagan  world  disgust 

And  secret  loathing  fell; 
Deep  weariness  and  sated  lust 

Made  human  life  a  hell. 

Ramsey  Macdonald  says:  "Socialism  has  no  more  to 
do  with  a  man's  religion  than  it  has  to  do  with  the  color 
of  his  hair.  Socialism  deals  with  secular  things,  not 
with  ultimate  beliefs."  Keir  Hardie,  in  his  Serfdom 
to  Socialism,  says:  "It  cannot  be  too  emphatically  stated 
that  Socialism  takes  no  more  cognizance  of  the  religious 
opinions  of  its  adherents  than  does  either  Liberalism  or 
Conservatism." 

Mr.  Hillquit  in  his  famous  debate  with  Professor 
John  A.  Ryan  on  "Socialism:  A  Promise  or  a  Menace?" 


SOCIALISM  173 

says:  "Socialism,  on  the  one  hand,  demands  the  com- 
plete separation  of  state  and  church,  and,  on  the  other, 
it  stands  for  absolute  religious  liberty.  These  two 
fundamental  principles  determine  the  attitude  which 
the  Socialist  state  must  take  on  religion  and  worship. 
It  is  safe  to  predict  that  a  Socialist  administration  will 
confer  no  special  rights,  privileges,  or  exemptions  on 
the  Church,  nor  will  it  give  it  official  sanction  or  recog- 
nition. On  the  other  hand,  it  will  not  interfere  in  the 
slightest  degree  with  its  existence,  teachings,  and  prac- 
tices." This,  while  ostensibly  plausible,  is  in  itself  a 
betrayal  of  an  utterly  agnostic,  and  either  an  unfriendly 
or  a  blind,  attitude  on  the  part  of  Socialism  toward  the 
fundamental  spiritual  character  and  needs  of  human 
nature. 

If  man,  as  the  sane  world  has  quite  universally  be- 
lieved, is  primarily  a  spiritual  being,  and  as  such  is  a 
citizen  of  a  moral  order  of  the  universe  divinely  ordained, 
then,  a  state  "which  will  confer  no  special  rights,  priv- 
ileges, or  exemptions  on  the  Church"  (religion,  worship), 
"nor  will  give  it  official  sanction  or  recognition" — such 
a  state,  from  a  Christian  standpoint,  would  stand  as  a 
monstrosity  in  civilization.  A  civilization  which  would 
fail  in  recognition  of  duty  to  provide  for  the  all-around 
education  and  culture  of  the  moral  life  of  its  people 
would  be  a  civilization  self-arrayed  against  the  moral 
order  of  the  universe. 

As  an  interesting  symptom  of  the  trend  of  socialistic 
philosophy,  it  is  suggestive  that  Mr.  William  English 
Walling,  himself  a  literary  authority  on  the  subject, 
has  just  published  a  book  in  which  he  deals  with  the 


i74      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

ethical  aspects  of  Socialism.  He  exalts  Socialism  to 
the  rank  of  the  exclusive  religion.  And  this  is  really 
what  multitudes  of  the  less  thoughtful  subjects  of  the 
movement  are  doing.  Mr.  Walling's  socialistic  pre- 
dictions call  for  the  final  disappearance  of  the  individual 
family  home,  a  communistic  home  being  substituted  in 
its  place.  With  the  disappearing  of  the  home  will  go 
the  old  relation  of  the  sexes,  and  the  defenses  of  the 
old  morality.  He  says,  "The  overwhelming  majority 
of  Socialists  in  all  countries  where  Socialism  has  become 
an  important  factor  in  society"  believe  "that  all  we 
know  by  the  name  of  religion  is  likely  to  disappear  with- 
out any  violent  attack." 

A  man  in  Mr.  Hillquit's  position  may  naturally  shrink 
from  publicly  conceding  that  Socialism  as  a  movement 
is  infiltrated  through  and  through  with  an  animus  hostile 
to  Christianity.  But  the  fact  is  too  much  in  the  open. 
It  cannot  be  disguised.  The  dominating  minds  of 
Socialism  are  overwhelmingly  anti-Christian.  And,  as 
Professor  Ryan  sanely  suggests,  "What  is  of  serious 
consequence  is  the  fact  that  the  Socialist  movement  of 
to-day  is  an  active  and  far-reaching  influence  for  the 
spread  of  irreligion  among  large  sections  of  the  popula- 
tion in  many  countries." 

The  above  testimony,  I  judge,  is  quite  representative 
of  the  general  attitude  of  the  socialistic  cult  toward 
religious  and  spiritual  questions.  As  a  creed  Socialism 
lays  much  stress  upon  conditions  of  life  which  shall  be 
free  from  physical  hardships.  In  this  creed  animal 
comfort  is  a  sine  qua  non.  It  may  be  questioned  whether 
this  very  view  is  not  a  heresy  of  the  first  rank.     God 


SOCIALISM  i7S 

has  nowhere  indicated  that  physical  ease  has  any  very 
important  place  in  his  scheme  of  moral  development 
for  the  race.  Labor  is  God's  appointed  mint  from  which 
alone  can  be  coined  the  highest  attainments  of  char- 
acter, the  noblest  achievements  of  service.  Toil  of  both 
hand  and  brain  is  a  necessity  to  the  best  development 
of  the  individual  and  to  the  highest  welfare  of  society. 
Labor,  so  far  from  being  a  curse,  is  well-nigh  God's 
one  condition,  and  will  always  remain  so,  to  the  highest 
reach  of  soul.  Masterful  faculty,  faculty  which  shall 
sway  wide  forces,  must  develop  the  thews  of  victory 
in  surmounting  obstacles  and  capturing  achievements  on 
toilsome  pathways.  All  great,  useful  and  lasting  struc- 
tures of  society  represent  toil — the  combined  energies  of 
capital,  of  brain,  and  of  brawn.  The  builders  of  great 
philosophies,  and  of  great  faiths,  are  men  who  have 
not  primarily  concerned  themselves  much  about  physical 
ease,  but,  rather,  men  who  have  studied  to  secure  for 
themselves  power  for  greater  toil.  No  philosophy  can 
change  the  essential  nature  of  things.  The  constitution 
of  the  world  and  the  conditions  of  human  society  are 
such  as  to  require  a  working  race. 

In  the  world's  work  there  will  always  be  grades  of 
needed  work,  some  of  which  will  not  be  in  themselves 
as  congenial  as  other  grades.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  how 
some  men  are  to  escape  doing  some  work  which  does 
not  itself  appeal  to  highest  taste.  The  city  needs  scav- 
engers as  surely  as  it  needs  magistrates.  The  ashes 
and  garbage  of  homes  must  be  disposed  of,  and 
the  sewers  cared  for.  The  most  ideal  socialistic  com- 
munity must,  in  these  respects,  be  much  as  a  fine  ocean 


i?6       CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

steamship.  However  elegant  the  people,  apartments,  and 
furnishings  above  deck,  the  thing  cannot  be  navigated 
except  at  the  expense  of  coal  stokers  who,  far  down 
below,  and  stripped  to  their  waists,  work  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  Stirling  heat  and  grime.  And  how  much  will 
Socialism  be  able  to  do  to  make  ideal  or  easy  the  life 
of  society's  coal  stokers? 

Socialism  is  yet  far  from  the  elaboration  of  adjust- 
ments which  will  inevitably  be  required  from  essential 
inequalities  in  human  ability.  God's  endowments  of 
men  range  all  the  way  from  genius  down  to  the  most 
ordinary  of  one-talented  men.  These  varying  grades  by 
a  fundamental  law  of  nature,  a  law  which  acts  of  legis- 
lation will  have  little  power  to  modify,  must  inevitably 
in  the  world's  work  find  spheres  for  which  their  abilities 
specially  ordain  them. 

The  limitation  of  Socialism  is  that  it  deals  in  mere 
externals.  Its  ideals  are  almost  entirely  materialistic. 
It  assumes  that  if  you  surround  men  with  the  best  ma- 
terial environment,  you  thereby  secure  to  them  the 
highest  welfare  and  happiness.  Now,  all  this  may  be 
immeasurably  far  from  the  truth.  It  is  not  the  touch 
of  outward  environment,  however  important  this  may  be, 
but  motives  dominating  the  soul  which  give  highest 
value  to  character.  Some  men  in  spite  of  poor  environ- 
ment conduct  themselves  in  a  spirit  so  wise,  temperate, 
and  virtuous,  that  they  are  happy  and  noble  even  in 
comparative  poverty.  Others,  in  command  of  all  ma- 
terial good,  are  so  slaves  of  excess  as  to  make  themselves 
objects  of  physical  and  moral  loathing. 

Wealth,  in  multitudes  of  cases,  has  ministered  only 


SOCIALISM  177 

to  the  bane  and  destruction  of  its  possessors.  In  this 
wealthiest  of  countries,  we  are  tragically  reminded  that 
wealth  alone  is  no  guarantee  for  nobility  of  manhood, 
that  it  gives  no  surety  of  the  inviolable  character  of 
the  marriage  altar,  nor  of  domestic  purity  and  happi- 
ness within  its  palaces.  Wealth  but  too  often  panders 
to  the  perversion  and  debasement  of  all  that  is  noblest 
in  human  ideals. 

Neither  Socialism,  nor  any  other  human  system,  can 
secure  anything  like  equal  happiness  to  men  of  antipodal 
habits  of  action  and  character.  One  of  the  worst  arraign- 
ments to  be  made  against  Socialism  is  that  by  its  very 
premises  it  robs  genius  of  incentive,  and  promises  an 
unearned  contentment  to  the  aimless  and  slothful. 

Socialism,  as  Christianity,  makes  its  appeal  to  those 
who  toil.  But  Socialism  is  not  a  religion.  It  is,  and 
can  be,  no  substitute  for  the  gospel  of  Him  who  said, 
"Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy-laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest." 


PART   FOURTH 
FACTORS  PROPHETIC 


179 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE 


181 


The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  leaven,  which  a  woman  took, 
and  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal,  till  the  whole  was  leavened. — Mat- 
thew 13.  33. 

In  the  reign  of  Decius,  so  runs  the  legend,  seven  youths  in  Ephesus 
who  had  confessed  their  Christian  faith  in  the  persecution,  but  after- 
ward escaped  their  persecutors,  fell  asleep  in  a  cave  in  which  they  took 
refuge.  When  they  awoke  again,  the  next  morning  as  they  supposed 
they  sent  one  of  their  number  to  the  town  to  fetch  food,  and  he  was  greatly 
astounded  to  find  there  everything  completely  changed.  Heathenism 
had  disappeared,  the  idol  statues  and  temples  were  gone,  in  their  places 
were  splendid  churches;  and  over  the  city  gates,  on  the  houses,  and  above 
the  churches,  everywhere  shone  victorious  that  cross,  for  whose  sake 
they  had,  as  they  thought,  been  persecuted  but  yesterday.  They  had 
slept  two  hundred  years  in  the  cave. — Dr.  Gerhard  Uhlhorn. 

The  kingdom  is  a  growth,  both  in  our  understanding  of  it  and  in  its 
realization.  Our  Lord  spoke  of  it  as  a  leaven,  which  was  gradually  to 
leaven  the  lump.  Again,  he  described  it  as  a  seed,  which  should  grow 
up,  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  and  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear. 
And  he  even  spoke  of  our  knowledge  of  it  as  something  to  be  slowly  gained 
under  the  tuition  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  whom  he  would  send  to  guide  his 
disciples  into  the  truth.  He  brought  the  leaven,  he  planted  the  seed, 
he  spoke  the  word;  but  the  evolution  and  the  understanding  were  com- 
mitted to  the  ages. — Dr.  Borden  Parker  Bowne. 


182 


CHAPTER  X 

CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE 

The  Christian  Church  is  not  to  be  judged  narrowly. 
Historically,  as  measured  both  by  its  vitality  and  fruit- 
fulness,  it  is  the  greatest  institution  known  to  man. 
Originating  in  the  Orient,  it  is  substantially  Western 
in  its  development.  Indeed,  it  may  be  measuredly 
said,  it  is  largely  the  creator  of  the  world's  most  enlight- 
ened and  advanced  civilizations.  It  is  older  by  cen- 
turies than  any  existing  government  in  the  Western 
world.  Born  in  a  pagan  environment,  and  under  hostile 
skies,  born  under  conditions  which,  humanly  considered, 
would  seem  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  its  continued 
life,  it  has  survived.  When  Christ  was  born  Rome 
was  called  the  "Eternal."  Her  scepter  swayed  the 
world  from  the  forests  of  Lebanon  to  the  Isles  of  Briton. 
But  the  dust  of  more  than  a  millennium  of  years  has 
gathered  upon  the  ruins  of  Rome,  and  in  all  Europe 
there  is  hardly  a  vestige  of  a  civilization  that  was  in 
existence  when  Christ  came. 

The  Christian  Church  has  not  only  survived,  but  in 
one  form  or  another  it  sways  the  life  and  thought  of 
all  Europe  as  no  other  force.  America  was  unknown 
to  the  world  until  fifteen  centuries  after  the  birth  of 
Christ.  To-day  America,  North  and  South,  is  the 
seat  of  great  empires,  of  world-civilizations;  but  the 
most  pervasive  and  dominant  institution  in  all  its  vast 

183 


i84      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

territory,  and  among  its  one  hundred  and  fifty  million 
of  people,  is,  in  one  form  or  another,  the  Christian  Church. 
The  Church  is  not  only  the  oldest  institution  in  both 
Europe  and  America,  but  in  empire  and  republic  alike 
it  is  the  most  dominating  force  in  all  Western  civilization. 

That  an  institution  originating  in  apparent  weakness, 
initially  commanding  but  a  few  uninfluential  supporters, 
beginning  its  mission  in  a  remote  and  despised  province 
of  civilization,  and  a  little  later  drawing  to  itself  the 
sporadic  and  organized  opposition  of  the  most  powerful 
and  militant  paganism  of  the  world — that  such  an  in- 
stitution should  survive  at  all  might  well  be  a  matter 
of  much  inquiry,  and  not  a  little  wonder.  The  great 
historian  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  has  devoted  two  chap- 
ters of  his  monumental  work  to  this  very  question. 
These  chapters  have  come  to  be  considered  among  the 
weakest,  the  most  sophistical,  and  the  least  creditable 
in  a  work  which,  on  the  whole,  is  justly  accredited  as 
one  of  the  supreme  products  of  literature.  To-day 
the  Christian  Church  represents  the  greatest  census  of 
history.  Its  enrollment  includes  more  than  five  hundred 
and  seventy  million  of  the  human  race.  The  Church, 
considered  alone  in  the  light  of  its  origin,  its  persistence, 
and  its  growth,  is  a  most  remarkable  phenomenon. 

But  there  are  many  features  that  add  to  the  wonder 
of  the  persistence  and  flourishing  life  of  the  Church. 
Its  pristine  ideals  have  been  obscured  by  the  interblending 
of  pagan  corruptions,  its  lofty  doctrines  have  been 
perverted  by  false  interpretations,  its  membership  has 
been  invaded,  and  in  some  sections  and  times,  inundated 
and   overwhelmed   by   unregenerate   hordes.     Its   unity 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE       185 

has  been  seemingly  hopelessly  rent  asunder  by  the 
cleavage  of  doctrinal  controversies.  From  its  central 
life  there  have  been  thrown  off  innumerable  and  rival 
sects.  History  has  witnessed  no  more  virulent  hatreds, 
no  more  violent  conflicts,  than  have  been  awakened  in 
the  Church  when  sect  has  warred  against  sect.  No 
wars  have  been  more  stubborn  or  cruel  than  the  wars 
of  religion.  The  Church,  while  always  challenging  to 
itself  the  antagonisms  of  the  world,  has  been  more 
menaced  by  internal  dissensions,  by  the  evil  lives  of  its 
professed  adherents,  by  the  false  teachings  of  its  accredited 
leaders,  by  the  priestly  prostitution  of  its  high  sanctities, 
by  the  ignorance  and  superstition  which  have  flourished 
at  her  own  altars,  than  by  all  outward  foes  combined. 
But  still,  the  Church  has  continued  to  live  and  has 
waxed  strong. 

From  the  days  of  Celsus  to  the  days  of  Robert 
Ingersoll  there  has  been  an  unbroken  succession  of  hos- 
tile critics,  who  have  in  most  spectacular  manner  an- 
nounced the  near  and  utter  destruction  of  the  Church. 
These  men  have  assumed  to  write  the  very  epitaph  of 
Christianity  itself.  But  all  of  them,  like  meteors  flashing 
in  the  night,  have  disappeared,  and  most  of  them  are 
forgotten.  But  the  Church  has  moved  irresistibly, 
majestically  forward,  witnessing  to  the  ages  that  they 
who  take  up  arms  against  her  cannot  prosper,  and  they 
who  witness  against  her  are  false  prophets. 

The  secret  of  the  quenchless  and  abounding  vitality 
of  the  Church  is  the  divine  life  resident  within  her.  The 
Church  on  its  human  side  is  immeasurably  far  from 
perfect.     In  vast  majorities  it  is  made  up  of  men,  women, 


186      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

and  children,  greatly  wanting  in  knowledge,  with  im- 
perfect ideals,  multitudes  of  them  quite  primally  human, 
their  native  thought  little  cultivated,  their  natural 
impulses  little  restrained — and  yet  in  them  all  there  is 
a  profound  consciousness  of  need,  need  social,  moral, 
spiritual,  to  which  the  Church  has  ministered  and  does 
minister  as  not  all  other  agencies. 

In  the  course  of  its  history  the  Church  as  a  whole 
has  been  touched  and  influenced  by  many  types  of 
philosophy,  types  most  of  which  are  now  obsolete.  But 
in  all  its  history  the  Church  has  clung  to,  and  believed 
in,  Jesus  Christ  as  its  Sovereign,  its  supreme  Teacher, 
its  Exemplar,  its  inspiring  and  sustaining  Life.  And 
Jesus  Christ  as  its  Sovereign,  its  inspiring  and  vital 
strength,  has  proven  more  powerful  for  the  Church 
than  all  combinations  of  evil  against  it;  has  preserved 
the  Church  in  irresistible  vitality  in  spite  of  all  the 
ignorance,  superstition,  weakness,  and  dissensions  which 
have  inhered  in  its  membership.  Of  all  human  beliefs 
none  have  been  more  widespread  or  unyielding  than 
the  belief  on  the  part  of  the  Christian  world  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  a  living  and  divine  Saviour  of  those  who  trust 
in  him. 

A  belief  well-nigh  as  universal  as  the  Church  itself 
is  that  Christ  holds  a  living  fellowship  with  men  who 
seek  to  obey  him,  and  that  he  attests  the  reproduction 
of  himself  in  the  lives  of  those  who  love  him.  The 
invincible  thing  which  keeps  the  Church  always  and 
mightily  alive  is  the  abiding  conviction  that  Christ 
dwells  experimentally  in  the  hearts  of  his  people. 

While  outwardly  nothing  might  seem  more  fixed  and 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE       187 

incurable  than  the  cleavage  between  the  Roman  and 
the  Protestant  Churches,  yet  in  their  mutual  relation 
to  Jesus  Christ  there  is  revealed  a  real  unity  that  is 
far  deeper  and  more  vital  than  any  divisions  which 
separate  them.  The  testimony  of  Catholic  and  Protes- 
tant saints  alike  as  to  their  fellowship  with  Jesus  is  just 
the  same.  Their  testimony  is  keyed  to  the  same  note 
of  experience;  their  songs  of  Christian  gratitude  are 
interchangeable,  and  they  blend  in  perfect  harmony. 

The  Church  in  this  respect  cannot  be  placed  on  a 
parity  with  any  national  life,  nor  with  any  philosophy 
or  system  of  law  or  culture.  The  Church  as  represented 
by  the  body  of  believers  is  distinctively  insouled  and 
vitalized  by  an  indwelling  divinity.  This  is  the  real 
reason  why  it  triumphantly  survives  tests  and  ordeals 
before  which  any  merely  human  institution  would  go 
down  in  collapse. 

Any  attempt  to  account  for  the  vitality  of  the  Church 
would  be  inadequate  which  did  not  reckon  with  certain 
great  facts  and  doctrines  which  it  has  been  a  distinctive 
function  of  the  Church  to  emphasize.  The  Church 
as  a  whole  has  never  uttered  itself  equivocally  as  to  the 
character  of  sin.  Sin  is  a  violation  of  moral  law,  a 
departure  from  rectitude,  a  thing  in  essential  antagonism 
to  righteousness,  a  crime  against  the  holiness  and  love 
of  God.  It  is  something  so  grave  in  itself  as  to  jeopardize 
the  soul's  relation  to  God,  something  the  consequences 
of  which  its  victim  cannot  escape  without  the  inter- 
vention of  divine  love  and  power.  This  teaching,  be- 
hind which  the  Church  has  stood  with  great  unanimity, 
a  teaching  which  has  had   its  largest   confirmation  in 


i88      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

the  universal  moral  sense  of  mankind,  has  been  no  small 
factor  in  its  world-wide  and  age-long  influence. 

The  Church  has  persistently  and  universally  taught 
the  priceless  value  of  the  human  soul.  This  teaching 
is  central  to  the  very  logic  of  the  Christian  faith.  God 
is  the  Father  of  the  human  spirit.  It  must  then  follow, 
even  though  it  be  in  some  marvelous  and  indefinable 
sense,  that  man  as  God's  offspring  is  also  potentially 
divine.  There  can  be  no  sense  in  which  man  is  God's 
son  which  does  not  call  for  an  exalted  view  of  human 
nature.  Man,  as  we  often  see  him,  may  seem  depraved, 
perverted,  hopeless.  But  if  there  is  any  recuperative 
potency  in  the  individual,  if  God  has  any  interest  in 
his  fallen  child,  if  his  love  will  prompt  to  any  ingenuity 
of  effort  to  lift  up  and  transform  those  whom  ignorance 
and  sin  have  cast  down,  then,  we  can  set  no  bounds 
to  the  glorious  possibilities  of  any  soul  however  appar- 
ently worthless.  Coupled  with  the  potential  worth  of 
every  human  soul  is  the  Christian  conception  of  im- 
mortality. Given  this  conception,  and  God  himself 
is  the  only  conceivable  limit  of  the  soul's  possibilities 
of  growth.  To  be  a  son  of  God,  and  to  be  a  deathless 
heir  of  eternity,  suggest  a  destiny  in  comparison  with 
which  all  earthly  values  shrink  into  insignificance.  Yet 
the  Church  throughout  its  history  has  steadily  and 
clearly  announced  this  great  teaching.  It  is  a  teaching 
worthy  to  challenge  the  supreme  attention  of  mankind. 

The  Church  has  always  stood  as  the  mouthpiece  of 
God's  revelation  to  the  world.  It  has  been  the  supreme 
and  unsubstituted  expounder  of  God's  will  concerning 
man,  the  interpreter  of  man's  relations  and  possibilities 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE       189 

in  God's  plans.  This  is  a  sublime  function  which  in 
all  history  has  never  been  so  undertaken  by  any  agency 
as  by  the  Church.  It  is  a  function  so  stupendous,  so 
large  in  assumption,  as,  without  direct  ordination  from 
heaven,  to  be  regarded  a  thing  of  infinite  impertinence, 
an  infamous  audacity. 

It  is  due  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  in  the  discharge 
of  this  function  the  Church  has  always  claimed  the 
presence  in  its  own  life  of  a  divine  inspiration  and  guid- 
ance. But  in  discharge  of  this  supreme  mission  it  has 
never  faltered,  its  spirit  has  never  been  touched  with 
a  sense  of  despair.  Sublimely  conscious  of  its  heaven- 
given  credentials,  it  has  gone  steadily  forward  preaching 
the  gospel  of  its  Founder  to  all  men,  urging  upon  all 
alike  the  uncompromising  claims  of  God's  will,  always 
buoyant  in  the  confidence  that  in  its  message  is  the 
charter  of  a  divine  redemption  for  all  mankind.  Thus 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  in  the  very  foundations  of 
the  Church  itself  there  are  some  distinctive  factors  adapted 
to  give  it  a  place  of  tremendous  and  transcendent  in- 
fluence in  the  world  of  human  thought. 

No  review  of  the  Church,  however  brief,  should  fail 
to  note  its  transforming  influence  upon  the  institutions 
of  society.  We  have  noted  the  alienation  toward  the 
Church  which  unfortunately  characterizes  too  widely 
the  present-day  labor  world.  But  labor  in  all  its  his- 
tory has  never  had  a  better  friend  than  the  Church 
of  Christ.  When  Christianity  took  its  origin  the  laboring 
man  was  among  the  most  despised  and  friendless  of  men. 
This  was  the  spirit  of  the  pagan  world.  Toil  in  any 
form  was  a  work  for  slaves.     Cicero  said:  "All  who  live 


ioo      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

by  mercenary  labor  do  a  degrading  business.  No  noble 
sentiment  can  come  from  a  workshop."  Seneca,  Rome's 
greatest  philosopher,  said:  "The  invention  of  the  arts 
belongs  to  the  vilest  slaves.  Wisdom  dwells  in  loftier 
regions;  she  soils  not  her  hands  with  labor." 

In  a  world  in  which  the  toiler  was  universally  despised, 
Christ  began  his  work  by  surrounding  himself  with 
men  of  humble  callings.  Paul,  greatest  of  the  apostles, 
supported  himself  by  the  labor  of  his  hands.  From 
the  first,  Christianity  put  a  dignity  upon  labor.  It 
even  received  the  slave  into  its  fellowship  and  treated 
him  as  a  brother  beloved.  Clement,  in  characterizing 
the  Christian,  said:  "Among  us,  some  are  fishers,  others 
artisans,  others  husbandmen.  We  are  never  idle."  In 
the  early  Church  not  the  rights  of  labor,  but  the  duty 
of  labor  was  emphasized.  And  the  new  moral  citizen- 
ship which  Christianity  thus  brought  to  the  laborer, 
the  new  ideals  and  incitements  which  thus  came  to 
his  life,  resulted  in  a  general  prosperity  among  Chris- 
tians which  early  drew  to  itself  the  attention  of  the 
Roman  world.  Christianity  began  and  continued  its 
mission  by  enfranchising  the  laboring  classes  and  giving 
them  all  the  privileges  of  its  citizenship. 

The  Church,  in  its  true  spirit,  has  always  been  the 
open  friend  of  poor  and  toiling  men.  One  of  the 
sublimest  triumphs  of  its  spirit  and  teaching  is  the 
obliteration  of  human  slavery  from  all  Christian  civiliza- 
tions. And  if  it  be  really  true  to-day  that  there  is  any 
widespread  alienation  of  labor  from  the  Christian  Church, 
this  in  itself  should  awaken  on  the  part  of  the  Church 
anxious  inquiry  as  concerning  its  own  spirit.     Nothing 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE       191 

can  be  truer  than  that  the  great  Founder  and  Exemplar 
of  the  Church  was  in  the  closest  sympathy  with,  and  was 
most  conspicuously  the  friend  of,  those  who  labor  and 
are  heavy-laden. 

The  ennobling  influence  of  Christianity  upon  the 
character  and  status  of  woman  is  a  theme  which  has 
been  much  but  most  worthily  dwelt  upon.  In  antiquity, 
especially  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  worlds,  woman  was 
universally  treated  as  man's  inferior.  The  very  status 
of  inferiority  thus  assigned  to  her  made  impossible, 
even  in  these  great  and  cultured  civilizations,  the  creation 
of  an  ideal  moral  society  or  the  most  perfect  standard 
of  family  life. 

It  is  only  with  difficulty  that  we  can  reproduce  to 
our  thought  the  nameless  immorality  prevalent  in  the 
Roman  empire  at  the  time  of  and  after  the  advent  of 
Christ.  Woman,  as  measured  by  our  present  Christian 
ideals,  was  well-nigh  universally  degraded.  She  was 
practically  the  vassal  of  man,  the  instrument  of  his 
caprice,  the  slave  of  his  pleasure.  One  of  the  first  in- 
fluences of  Christianity  was  to  give  an  exalted  place 
to  womanhood.  The  divine  Saviour  of  men  was  born 
of  a  woman.  A  pure  and  noble  womanhood  is  beau- 
tifully exemplified  in  some  of  Christ's  personal  friend- 
ships as  pictured  in  the  Gospels.  From  the  very  begin- 
ning woman  was  treated  as  man's  peer  in  the  citizenship 
of  the  Kingdom.  In  Christ  there  was  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  bond  nor  free,  male  nor  female.  Men  and  women 
are  "heirs  together  of  the  grace  of  life."  Christ  put 
the  divine  seal  upon  the  sacredness  of  the  family  life 
by  enjoining  a  lifelong  marriage  of  one  man  with  one 


i92      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

woman.  Only  in  a  relation  thus  established  and  limited 
could  there  be  guaranteed  to  children  born  into  the 
home  the  rights  of  parental  care,  nurture,  and  training 
essential  to  their  future.  From  its  earliest  organization 
the  Church  not  only  insisted  upon  the  equality  of  woman, 
but  it  put  around  her  life  in  all  relations  the  highest 
sanctities  of  personal  purity  and  virtue. 

Wherever  the  Church  has  carried  a  dominant  influence 
there  womanhood  has  been  honored,  the  definition  of 
her  rights  has  been  widened,  and  the  sphere  of  her  in- 
fluence and  privilege  in  the  family,  in  the  social  and 
educational  world  has  been  enlarged.  The  logic  of 
this  position  of  the  Church  in  relation  to  woman  has 
issued  in  the  widest  results.  If  woman  is  to  be  the 
peer  and  companion  of  man,  then  she  should  be  the 
full  sharer  with  him  in  the  social,  educational,  moral, 
and  spiritual  opportunities  of  life.  If  she  is  to  bear, 
as  the  Christian  home  calls  for,  a  chief  task  in  the  mental, 
moral,  and  spiritual  nurture  of  childhood,  then  she  is 
entitled  for  her  high  function  as  mother  and  teacher 
to  all  the  personal  culture  which  the  best  conditions 
can  furnish.  These  are  the  premises  from  which  have 
arisen  the  high  place  accorded  to  woman  in  the  activ- 
ities of  the  Church  itself,  the  costly  provision  for  her 
education  in  common  with  her  brothers  at  public  expense, 
her  coeducational  status  in  the  great  universities,  and 
the  splendid  list  of  colleges  devoted  exclusively  to  fe- 
male education. 

Civilization,  just  in  the  measure  in  which  its  vision 
becomes  Christian,  recognizes  increasingly  both  the  fit- 
ness and  the  justice  of  endowing  woman,  ordained  to 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE       193 

be  the  companion  and  peer  of  man,  with  every  social, 
educational,  and  moral  privilege  which  by  right  should 
be  conferred  upon  her  brothers.  So  true  is  all  this 
that  there  is  not  a  man  who  owes  a  debt  to  a  cultured, 
Christian  mother,  there  is  not  a  woman  who  holds  a 
high  place  of  esteem  in  the  social  world,  not  one  who 
because  of  the  wealth  of  her  mental  attainments,  or 
the  beauty  of  her  spiritual  character,  commands  unusual 
influence,  who  is  not  placed  under  the  bonds  of  grat- 
itude for  an  inheritance  received  from  the  Christian 
Church. 

The  ameliorations  which  the  Church  has  wrought  in 
social  conditions,  the  inspirations  which  it  has  furnished 
to  human  thought,  form  a  long  list  of  benefactions  upon 
which  I  cannot  here  enlarge.  Wealth,  its  dispositions, 
its  uses,  presents  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  vexing 
questions  to  present-day  thought.  In  the  ancient  world 
wealth  was  held  by  its  possessor  without  sense  of  moral 
responsibility  for  its  use.  The  spirit  of  paganism  per- 
mitted a  man  to  feel  free  in  its  selfish  use.  Christianity 
has  always  taught  that  wealth  is  a  moral  trust,  that 
its  holder  is  a  steward  held  strictly  responsible  for  the 
use  he  makes  of  even  his  money.  The  influence  of 
this  teaching  may  be  somewhat  measured  by  the  costly 
charities,  by  hospitals,  by  homes  for  the  aged  and  unfor- 
tunate, by  asylums  for  the  feeble-minded,  by  retreats 
for  the  blind,  by  orphanages,  and  by  kindred  benefac- 
tions, which  stand  numerously  all  along  the  pathway 
of  Christian  history.  I  shall  have  occasion  elsewhere 
to  note  the  marvelous  spirit  of  benevolence  which  char- 
acterizes the  modern  world.     Who  is  able  intelligently 


194      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

to  deny  that  the  teaching  of  the  Christian  Church  is, 
and  has  been,  more  than  any  other  cause  the  source  of 
all  this  munificence? 

The  Church  has  inspired  radical  reforms  against 
the  barbarism  of  prison  management;  has,  by  its  hu- 
mane teaching  and  Red  Cross  nurses,  mitigated  the 
atrocities  of  war  and  the  horrors  of  the  battlefield;  has 
done  much  to  humanize  the  criminal  codes,  and  to 
lessen  the  lists  of  inhuman  punishments  for  minor  mis- 
demeanors. It  has  taken  a  long  time  for  the  Christian 
spirit  to  eliminate  the  primitive  barbarisms  which  have 
persisted  even  into  Christian  civilizations.  As  late  as 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  were 
more  than  two  hundred  offenses  on  the  statute  books 
of  England  punishable  by  death.  Men  and  women 
were  hanged  for  sheep-stealing,  for  forgery,  for  passing 
spurious  coin.  Yet  at  the  same  time  men  might  buy 
and  sell  slaves  and  flog  them  to  death  without  even 
breaking  the  law. 

Benjamin  Kidd  luminously  and  convincingly  shows 
us  that  the  steady  trend  of  legislation  of  the  entire  Western 
civilizations  for  the  last  century  has  been  in  the  direc- 
tion of  humane  ameliorations,  of  enlarged  recognition 
of  human  rights,  and  for  the  betterment  of  general 
social  and  moral  conditions.  And  no  one  than  he  will 
be  more  prompt  to  credit  the  influence  of  Christian 
teaching  as  an  underlying  cause  of  this  humane  trend 
in  Western  legislation. 

In  touching  upon  these  familiar  claims  on  behalf 
of  the  Christian  Church  as  having  created  many  of 
the  most  valuable  features  of  our  modern  civilization, 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE       195 

I  am  not  unaware  of  the  claim  made  by  some  that  if 
Christianity  had  not  existed,  civilization  would  still 
have  developed  much  of  the  same  valuable  qualities 
as  now.  There  are  those  who  go  so  far  as  to  declare 
that  Christianity  has  been  a  detriment  rather  than  a 
benefit  to  the  world's  advancement. 

Such  statements  are  far  more  easily  made  than  proven. 
There  is  hardly  a  land  to-day  in  which  there  has  not 
entered  some  measure  of  Christian  enlightenment.  But 
one  thing  is  certain,  the  more  deeply  we  bury  ourselves 
in  climes  and  atmospheres  purely  heathen,  the  more 
conspicuously  absent  are  the  better  qualities  character- 
istic of  Christian  civilization.  Science,  education,  and 
the  sanitary  city  do  not  flourish  in  heathendom.  On 
the  other  hand,  degraded  womanhood,  neglected  child- 
hood, despotic  castes,  abject  slavery,  gross  superstitions, 
ignorance,  poverty,  and  despair  all  combine  to  put  a 
pall  of  habitual  hopelessness  upon  the  vision  of  heathen 
civilizations.  In  Christian  communities  there  may  be 
individuals  just  as  superstitious,  just  as  wicked  and 
depraved,  as  any  to  be  found  in  heathendom.  But 
the  lives  of  such  in  Christian  communities  always  ap- 
pear in  marked  contrast  to  lives  which  Christianity 
has  made  beautiful.  No  so  in  heathendom.  In  the 
heathen  world  the  common  vision  is  monotonously 
darkened.  There  is  in  all  the  great  human  mass  little 
to  inspire  hope,  gladness,  purity,  or  heroism. 

A  pertinent  question  would  seem  to  be,  If  a  perfect 
civilization  can  be  developed  in  the  absence  of  Chris- 
tianity, why  do  not  some  fine  specimens  of  such  a  civiliza- 
tion appear  at  the  centers  of  the  world's   heathenism? 


196      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

If  it  should  be  assumed  that  a  high  intellectual  culture 
is  a  sufficient  source  of  a  superior  civilization,  then 
no  better  examples  could  be  asked  than  are  furnished 
in  Greece  and  Rome.  Grecian  thought  was  in  itself 
the  most  brilliant,  Grecian  art  the  most  perfect,  which 
the  ages  have  furnished.  But  the  moral  perfections 
of  Greece  in  its  best  age  will  bear  no  comparison  to 
the  better  type  of  the  Christian  community.  In  Rome 
law,  philosophy,  oratory,  literature,  and  art  flourished 
in  a  phenomenal  degree.  But  when  Rome  clothed 
herself  in  purple,  and  was  the  most  lavish  patron  of 
art,  her  morals  were  namelessly  corrupt,  her  faith  most 
darkened,  her  ideals  most  depraved,  the  common  lot 
most  largely  one  of  hopelessness  and  despair. 

Religiously,  the  most  classic  paganisms  of  the  world 
have  proven  the  most  despairing  failures.  At  the  height 
of  Roman  culture,  Seneca  said,  "The  aim  of  all  phil- 
osophy is  to  despise  life."  Suicide  was  the  last  con- 
solation of  his  philosophy.  Paganism  at  its  best  has 
never  been  able  to  satisfy  the  deeper  spiritual  instincts 
of  the  human  soul,  the  longing  of  the  soul  for  God.  The 
highest  satisfactions  that  can  come  to  the  life  of  man 
have  come  most  certainly,  most  fully,  most  abidingly, 
in  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  false  to  history  to 
declare  that  there  can  be  a  perfect  civilization  without 
Christianity. 

We  have  frankly  admitted  the  weaknesses  and  lim- 
itations which  have  characterized  the  life  of  the  historic 
Church.  But  the  man,  with  all  history  as  his  teacher, 
in  search  for  a  new  religion,  has  sought  in  vain  for  any 
improvement   upon   that    Christianity   which   has   been 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE       197 

taught  by  the  Church.  And  those  who  now  seek  for 
institutions  whose  teachings  furnish  better  ideals  of 
character,  or  higher  hopes  for  life,  whose  fellowships 
are  more  lofty,  more  pure,  or  more  helpful  than  those 
furnished  by  the  Christian  Church,  will  continue  to 
search  in  vain.  Such  institutions  do  not  exist.  It  is 
in  the  irreversible  logic  of  Christianity  that  such  institu- 
tions will  never  appear. 

In  sober  and  measured  utterance  it  may  be  declared 
that  the  Christian  Church  has  been  the  inspirer  and 
creator  of  the  finest  educational  ideals,  the  most  humane 
movements  and  institutions,  the  most  advanced  ethical 
legislation,  which  are  the  assured  possessions  of  modern 
civilization.  All  this  may  be  said  without  the  slightest 
detraction  from  the  great  and  continuous  contributions 
of  Roman  and  Greek  literature  and  art,  or  from  the 
splendid  deposit  of  Arabic  science,  to  the  enrichment 
of  civilization.  It  would  be  both  ungainful  and  fatuous 
to  deny  that  civilization  is  the  resultant  of  many  forces. 
But  in  the  most  careful  classification  of  contributing 
factors,  it  can  hardly  fail  to  appear  that  the  best  civiliza- 
tion which  we  know  is  more  largely  the  product  of  Chris- 
tian ideals  than  of  any  other  creative  forces. 

It  is  to  be  admitted  that  the  Church,  while  largely 
the  creator  of,  has  ceased  to  be  at  first  hand  the  director 
of,  many  of  the  most  valuable  movements  of  the  modern 
world.  She  has  so  far  imbued  the  state  and  private 
organizations  with  her  benevolent  and  humane  ideals, 
that  these  have  taken  up  and  multiplied  her  mission 
to  humanity.  In  the  spheres  of  education,  of  humane 
charities,  in  legislation,  and  in  innumerable  ways,  help- 


i98      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

ful  ideals  which  first  found  embodiment  in  church  life 
are  now  greatly  amplified  and  reenforced  by  agencies 
outside  of  the  organized  Church.  All  these  agencies, 
however  fruitful  their  usefulness,  may  look  back  to  the 
Church  as  their  mother.  The  most  beneficent  institu- 
tions of  our  times  are  nearly  all  of  them  children  of 
the  Church,  and  together  with  her,  are  among  the  pro- 
motive forces  of  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ.1  Indeed, 
the  influences  of  Christianity  have  so  permeated  the 
intellectual  and  social  atmospheres  of  the  world,  have 
so  touched  and  shaped  the  processes  of  human  thought 
and  conduct,  as  to  make  it  utterly  impossible  to  assess 
its  values  to  the  present  life  of  the  world.  As  in  a  great 
and  costly  fabric,  the  golden  threads  of  Christianity  are 
richly  interwoven  into  all  the  structure  of  modern 
civilization.  And,  so  far  from  being  a  lessening  force, 
the  spirit  of  Christianity,  like  a  leaven,  is  more  and 
more  working  itself  into  and  through  the  great  body 
of  world- thought. 

Making  all  due  allowance,  then,  for  the  fact  that 
the  Church,  as  the  ecclesiastical  investiture  of  Chris- 
tianity, has  been  characterized  by  grievous  faults,  incon- 
sistencies, and  weaknesses;  that  in  these  very  times 
it  is  failing  sadly  to  show  itself  the  fit  and  adequate 
vehicle  for  giving  expression  to  the  mission  of  Chris- 
tianity to  the  world,  yet  I  can  have  no  doubt  that  the 
Church  will  remain  indefinitely  the  foremost  agency 
of  inspiration,  instruction,  and  propagation  in  the  up- 
building of  Christ's  kingdom  among  men. 

1  In  this  chapter  I  have  in  a  few  instances  used  the  word  "Church"  as  practically  synon- 
ymous with  the  "Kingdom,"  because  when  so  used  the  Church  has  stood  as  the  chief 
expression  of  Kingdom  development. 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE       aoo 

Life  creates  its  own  organisms,  its  own  agencies  of 
propagation.  Christianity  is  life  supreme.  It  will  always 
voice  itself  more  potently  through  the  Church  than 
by  any  other  agency.  Whatever  the  tendency  of  his- 
torical ecclesiasticism  to  harden  itself  into  fixed  forms, 
whatever  the  tendency  of  its  doctrines  to  dogmatic 
fossilization,  the  inherent  creative  life  of  the  Spirit  will 
nevertheless  so  shape  Christian  thinking  and  method 
as  to  produce  a  type  of  church  life  flexible,  adaptive, 
and  effectively  responsive  to  the  Spirit's  processes  in 
the  redemption  of  the  world. 

But,  whatever  our  confidence  in  the  stability  and 
perpetuity  of  the  Church,  it  would  be  in  the  highest 
degree  fatuous  not  to  take  into  most  serious  reckoning 
the  exceptionally  critical  and  prodigiously  difficult  situa- 
tion which  confronts  the  mission  of  the  present-day 
Church.  This  situation  is  so  real,  so  obvious,  as  to 
seem  to  some  of  its  observers  tantamount  to  nothing 
less  than  an  arrest  of  Christianity  itself.  To  this  view 
no  hospitality  is  to  be  given.  But  nevertheless  the 
Church  has  come  to  face  one  of  the  gravest  critical 
periods  in  its  history.  Its  life-and-death  conflict  with 
early  Roman  persecutions  did  not  furnish  a  severer 
test  of  its  vitality  and  capacity  than  that  which  now 
confronts  its  life. 

If  the  Church  is  to  prove  itself  equal  to  Christianizing 
the  world,  it  will  need  to  adapt  itself  as  never  before 
to  what  may  be  characterized  as  largely  new  and  uni- 
versal age-conditions. 

i.  Providence,  in  a  marvelous  way,  has  signalized 
this   very   day   as   one   of   the   world-wide   preparation 


2oo      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

for  the  advent  of  the  gospel  to  all  nations.  Is  the  Church, 
in  equipment,  in  purpose,  in  zeal,  ready  to  enter  upon 
the  supreme  program  which  God  is  now  thrusting  upon 
its  vision?1 

2.  The  conditions  of  the  industrial  and  social  world 
force  upon  the  Church  to-day  for  its  solution  some  of 
the  most  fateful  and  difficult  problems  which  have  ever 
arisen  in  Christian  history.  The  really  alarming  elements 
in  the  situation  are,  as  I  must  believe,  only  beginning 
to  take  their  rightful  place  in  the  consideration  of  Chris- 
tian thought.  There  are,  for  instance,  in  Christendom 
to-day  three  quite  well-defined  zones  of  social  life.  The 
distinctive  term  which  may  be  applied  to  one  is  "cap- 
italism." As  early  as  1890  Mr.  Charles  B.  Spahr,  by 
careful  processes,  reached  the  conclusion  that  one  per 
cent  of  the  families  of  the  United  States  control  more 
than  one  half  of  the  aggregate  wealth  of  the  country. 
If  this  estimate  was  correct  then,  it  is  probably  not 
less  true  to-day.  The  same  authority  asserts  that 
seven  eighths  of  the  families  control  only  one  eighth 
of  the  national  wealth.  These  figures,  however,  do  not 
best  represent  the  real  social  stratification  of  our  present- 
day  life.  Between  the  two  extremes  of  capitalism  and 
poverty,  there  is  a  wide  middle  zone.  The  people  in 
this  zone  represent  conditions  of  average  comfort.  Many 
of  them  own  their  homes.  They  command  a  fair  living 
income.  They  provide  their  children  with  the  con- 
ditions of  a  liberal  education.  This  zone  embraces 
nearly  all  the  industrious  and  prosperous  merchants, 
tradesmen,  farmers,  and  professional  classes.     Its  people 

1 1  reserve  another  chapter  for  the  discussion  of  this  question. 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE       201 

largely  represent  intelligence,  virtue,  and  wholesome 
qualities  of  character.  In  this  class  the  Church  has  its 
greatest  numerical  and  moral  strength.  This  class  as 
such  has  never  broken  with  the  Church.  Its  people 
are  those  upon  whom  the  Church  may  most  rely,  and 
from  which  it  may  expect  most  for  the  reenforcement 
of  its  work.  This  class,  on  the  whole,  represents  the 
best  product  of  our  civilization. 

Concerning  the  great  capitalist,  little  need  here  be 
said  except  that  he  commands  an  inordinate  fortune 
and  wields  a  very  great,  and  quite  possibly  dangerous, 
power.  Measured  from  any  Christian  standpoint,  it  is 
a  grave  thing  for  a  man  to  be  a  multimillionaire.  But 
nevertheless  the  Church  has  an  ethical  message  for 
this  capitalist  which  without  fear  or  favor  it  should 
urge  upon  him.  It  is  not  enough  that  he  is  benevolently 
disposed,  that  he  is  willing  to  do  good  with  his  surplus 
income.  The  question  is,  what  is  the  real  attitude  of 
his  heart  toward  God,  toward  humanity,  toward  his 
own  paramount  spiritual  interests?  How  is  he  really 
discharging  his  own  moral  stewardship?  One  may  be 
far  removed  from  any  grievance  toward  capital,  he  may 
recognize  clearly  both  the  legitimacy  and  necessity  of 
capital  for  the  larger  interests  of  human  society.  But 
may  there  not  still  be  room  for  the  judgment  that  there 
is  something  unideal,  something  Christianly  abnormal, 
in  the  overgrown  private  fortune?  It  is  not  enough 
that  the  owner  ranks  princely  in  philanthropy,  that 
he  endows  universities,  hospitals,  benevolent  foundations 
in  a  way  that  is  at  once  most  signal  and  most  useful. 
There  is  an  irreversible  moral  judgment  abroad  which 


2o2      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

says  that,  even  so,  he  is  not  justly  balancing  his  books 
with  the  world.  He  may  do  all  this,  and  yet  experience 
nothing  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross.  And,  after  all,  back 
of  all  the  processes  by  which  his  fortune  is  secured,  back 
of  all  legal  titles  of  ownership,  there  is,  as  weighed  in 
the  sensitive  scale  of  the  common  judgment,  a  serious 
question  as  to  the  moral  fitness  of  any  one  man  monop- 
olizing wealth  which  runs  inordinately  beyond  his  per- 
sonal needs. 

Certainly,  no  man  ever  acquires  such  wealth  by  his 
own  unaided  exertion.  He  may  have  been  able  to  sub- 
sidize many  forces,  but  among  these  forces  there  was 
a  productive  power  meriting  little,  if  any,  less  recog- 
nition than  his  own.  To  build  a  given  fortune  requires 
the  services  of  a  thousand  men.  One  man  has  the 
power  to  keep  in  his  own  hands  the  great  bulk  of  the 
production,  and  we  call  him  rich.  Nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  other  men  have  received  no  equitable  di- 
vision of  the  product,  and  the  margin  between  them, 
their  families,  and  poverty  is  always  so  narrow  as  to 
be  a  source  of  dread.  The  ethical  teachings  of  the  Old 
Testament  are  not  far  from  making  it  clear  that  the 
offerings  of  one  whose  fortune  has  been  gained  at  such 
expense  are  a  mockery  at  the  Lord's  altars.  Such 
a  man  is  at  least  in  the  category  of  those  of  whom  Christ 
said,  "It  is  not  easy  for  such  to  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven."  There  can  be  no  doubt,  I  think,  that  in 
the  ideal  Christian  state  inordinate  private  fortunes 
will  have  no  place.  They  cannot  coexist  with  an  ideal 
and  fully  developed  Christian  conscience.  And  so,  one 
of  the  supreme  problems  of  Christianity  to-day  is  to 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE       203 

Christianize  capitalism,  is,  in  the  spirit  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  to  deal  honestly,  courageously,  with  the  rich 
until  they  shall  be  made  to  feel  that  the  one  purpose 
to  which  they  should  dedicate  their  wealth  is  the  build- 
ing up  of  God's  kingdom  in  the  earth. 

The  tragic  question  of  all,  however,  relates  to  the 
decapitalized  classes.  The  three  classes  which  I  have 
named  are  socially  quite  apart  from  each  other.  But 
the  class  at  present  most  hopelessly  divorced  from  the 
Church  is  that  of  the  wage-earning  laborer.  This  sit- 
uation, viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  Christ's  own 
example  and  teaching,  is  in  all  respects  abnormal  and 
unfortunate.  If  in  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  there  is 
anything  which  ministers  to  human  needs,  that  brings 
strength  to  weakness,  comfort  to  the  sorrowing,  hope 
to  the  buffeted,  then,  of  all  classes,  the  poor  have  con- 
stant need  of  such  a  ministry.  But  for  reasons  which 
need  not  here  be  specialized  there  probably  never  was 
a  time  when  the  laboring  and  the  heavy-laden,  living 
at  the  very  doors  of  the  Church,  were  more  separated 
from  it  than  now. 

There  never  was  a  time  when  such  separation  would 
be  so  significant  as  now.  The  laboring  world  is  organ- 
ized. It  is  learning  to  know  the  power,  without  alto- 
gether appreciating  the  necessary  restraints,  of  organ- 
ization. It  is  militant  in  its  spirit.  It  is  discontented. 
It  cherishes  the  belief  that  it  is  being  defrauded  from 
its  fair  share  of  the  benefits  of  its  own  industry.  It 
is  lending  itself  bitterly  to  the  view  that  capitalism  is 
largely  robbery.  It  is  menacing  and  defiant.  It  pro- 
poses incessant  warfare  until  what  it  conceives  as  its 


2o4      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

own  rights  shall  be  conceded.  It  is  under  a  cult  especially 
its  own.  It  is  reading  newspapers,  magazines,  and 
books  created  and  published  from  its  own  ranks. 

The  misfortune  in  this  relation  is  that  the  literature 
on  which  it  feeds  and  fortifies  itself  takes  little  account 
of  spiritual  ideals  or  of  man's  spiritual  needs.  Labor 
is  systematically  being  educated  away  from  the  spiritual 
ideals  of  the  Church.  It  is  traducing  itself  into  the 
belief  that  it  has  no  need  for  the  Church.  Its  gospel 
is  materialistic,  its  hopes  are  of  this  world.  Its  vision 
is  confined  to  an  earthly  paradise.  It  is  hardly  possible 
to  exaggerate  the  gravity  of  the  situation.  Whole 
populous  provinces  of  our  civilization  are  migrating 
into  a  gross  materialism  and  are  educating  their  children 
away  from  Christian  ideals.  The  chasm  which  is  thus 
being  created  between  the  Church  and  the  laboring 
world  is  one  which  is  hardly  yet  begun  to  be  measured, 
but  it  is  implicit  with  consequences  of  immeasurable 
disaster  both  to  the  Church  and  to  the  future  moral 
status  of  labor. 

The  Church  of  the  twentieth  century  will  make  no 
signal  advance  until  it  bridges  this  chasm  and  recaptures 
these  alienated  territories.  In  order  to  do  this  it  will 
have  to  be  itself  fully  awakened  to  the  magnitude  and 
peril  of  the  situation.  It  will  need  to  have  a  full  appre- 
ciation and  sympathetic  understanding  of  all  the  problems 
and  difficulties  involved.  It  will  need  to  discover  for 
itself  new  and  large  adaptations  for  one  of  the  supreme 
tasks  of  Christian  history.  It  will  need  to  enter  upon 
this  work  from  the  very  focus  of  highest  spiritual  inspira- 
tions— inspirations  which   will   beget   at   its  heart  high 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE       205 

hopes,  a  Christlike  love  of  man,  a  quenchless  zeal.  Will 
the  Church  adapt  itself  for  this  supreme  work?  Will 
it  gird  and  inspire  itself  for  this  superlative  requirement  ? 
I  believe  it  will. 

3.  The  Church  of  the  twentieth  century  must  acquire 
far  more  perfectly  than  now  the  secret  and  power  of  a 
working  unity.  Happily,  this  is  one  of  the  great  con- 
ceptions, which  is  working  itself  mightily  into  the  con- 
victions of  the  present-day  Church.  Christians  of  the 
different  denominations  are  awaking  to  the  vision  of 
the  great  and  common  tasks  of  Christianity.  They 
are  perceiving  more  than  ever  that  the  things  which 
have  separated  them  are  not  vital,  and  that  the  truths 
in  which  the}-  agree  are  really  the  great  truths  of  the 
Christian  faith.  And,  more  than  ever,  our  common 
Christianity  is  coming  to  be  inspired  and  unified  in  the 
overwhelming  conception  of  what  it  means  to  Chris- 
tianize the  world.  To  say  nothing  for  the  moment  of 
Christianizing  the  entire  human  race — the  ultimate 
achievement  for  which  the  Church  exists — to  enter  the 
doors  of  opportunity  and  necessity  now  wide  open  for 
Christian  advancement  would  require  the  united  and 
harmonized  effort  of  the  entire  Christian  Church. 

I  think  of  a  mission  field  like  that  now  existing  in  the 
Greater  New  York  city.  Let  us  confine  our  thought 
to  the  east  side  of  Manhattan  Island,  though  this  is 
only  typical  of  many  other  sections  of  the  city  which 
might  almost  equally  serve  the  purpose.  This  whole 
section  is  now  congested  with  populations  which  have 
come  from  the  ends  of  the  earth.  It  is  a  section  which 
was  once  well  colonized  with  Christian  churches.     But 


2o6      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

with  the  incoming  of  foreign  populations  these  churches 
have,  one  after  another,  retreated,  until  to-day  the 
great  thronging  "East  Side"  is  pretty  much  given  over 
to  alien  peoples.  But  this  field  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant, strategic,  and  difficult  for  Christian  missionary 
work  existing  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

The  question  seems  well  asked,  "If  we  cannot  success- 
fully carry  out  a  Christian  missionary  scheme  in  our 
own  country,  why  should  we  be  so  careful  to  establish 
missions  in  pagan  lands?"  I  would  not  lessen  by  a 
feather's  weight  our  interests  in  foreign  missions.  Those 
interests  need  to  be  mightily  reenforced.  But  I  reassert 
the  conviction  that  New  York  city  presents  intrinsically 
the  most  strategic  and  important  mission  field  of  the 
world.  If  the  Church  could  establish  great  and  effective 
evangelistic  centers  on  the  east  side  of  New  York,  then, 
from  this  very  ground  would  be  raised  up  the  most 
efficient  foreign  missionary  agencies  which  the  Church 
has  yet  known.  But  this  is  the  field  in  which  the  Prot- 
estant denominations,  working  single-handed,  have  lost 
out.  I  do  not  underestimate — I  am  far  from  a  desire 
so  to  do — the  useful  work  now  being  done  on  this  "East 
Side"  by  various  single  organizations.  But  measured 
by  the  kind  of  judgment  which  is  required  for  success- 
ful business,  it  might  deliberately  be  said  that  all  that 
is  now  attempted  is  but  a  mere  byplay  conducted  on  the 
shores  of  an  infinite  need.  All  that  is  now  being  accom- 
plished hardly  touches  the  edges  of  an  indescribable 
mass  of  unchristianized  populations. 

To  recover  this  ground,  and  to  Christianize  the  peoples, 
will  require  such  a  massing  of  Christian  strength  and 


CHRISTIANITY'S  LEAVENING  LIFE       207 

movement  as  has  never  been  known  in  history.  It  is 
a  work  for  which  no  single  denomination,  nor  all  denom- 
inations together  working  separately,  is  equal.  Success, 
of  the  kind  needed  and  merited  in  this  field,  would  re- 
quire vast  sums  of  consecrated  wealth,  great  unity  and 
harmony  of  counsel,  apostolic  leadership,  workers  in 
sufficient  number,  who,  in  the  spirit  of  their  Master, 
would  invade  the  last  retreats  in  search  of  men  apparently 
lost  and  hopeless. 

I  have  used  the  city  to  illustrate  the  need  of  federated 
Christian  action.  There  are  innumerable  fields  which 
call  for  this  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  churches.  Happily 
beyond  expression,  the  Christian  atmosphere  is  full 
of  prophecy.  The  birth-throes  of  mighty  moral  move- 
ments are  in  the  age.  The  Church  will  emerge  to  the 
needs  of  the  day.  Its  inspired  ingenuity  will  not  only 
make  it  adaptive,  but  will  arm  it  with  adequate  resources 
for  the  fulfillment  of  its  divine  mission. 

Christianity  is  a  life,  an  inspiring  divine  force.  There 
may  be  periods  in  its  history  when  this  life  seems  quies- 
cent, inactive;  but  as  the  gathering  of  pent-up  waters, 
it  will  at  some  time  break  forth  and  assert  its  own  resist- 
less might.  Each  new  age  takes  on  environment  quite 
distinctly  its  own.  In  this  environment  new  problems, 
new  needs,  develop.  These  problems  and  needs  summon 
knowledge  to  the  task  of  new  solutions,  to  the  invention 
of  distinctive  and  adaptive  methods  of  treatment.  Noth- 
ing is  more  prophetically  certain  than  that  the  Divine 
Spirit  will  quicken  the  vision  of  the  Church,  inspire 
it  with  purpose,  and  gird  it  with  a  strength  equal  to  its 
momentous  and  difficult  tasks.     To  the  supreme  needs 


2o8       CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

of  the  world  and  to  all  divine  requirements  the  Church 
of  the  future  will  surely  respond.  Rejecting  useless 
methods  of  thought,  and  casting  off  worn-out  traditions, 
it  will  gird  itself  with  knowledge  as  with  light,  and, 
new-panoplied  in  the  life  of  the  Spirit,  it  will  go  forth 
to  the  greatest  achievements  of  its  history. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 


209 


And  Jesus  came  to  them  and  spake  unto  them,  saying,  All  authority- 
hath  been  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  ye  therefore,  and 
make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the  name  of  the 
Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit:  teaching  them  to  observe 
all  things  whatsoever  I  commanded  you:  And  lo,  I  am  with  you  always, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world. — Matthew  28.  18-20. 

The  record  of  the  work  done  by  the  first  missionaries  in  India  reads 
like  an  Eastern  romance.  They  created  a  prose  literature  for  Bengal; 
they  established  the  modern  method  of  popular  education;  they  founded 
the  present  Protestant  Indian  Church;  they  gave  the  first  impulse  to 
the  native  press;  they  set  up  the  first  steam  engine  in  India;  with  its 
help  they  introduced  the  modern  manufacture  of  paper  on  a  large  scale; 
in  ten  years  they  translated  and  printed  the  Bible,  or  parts  thereof,  in 
thirty-one  languages.  The  main  part  of  their  funds  they  earned  by 
their  hands  and  heads.  They  built  a  college  which  still  ranks  among 
the  most  splendid  educational  edifices  in  India. — Sir  William  Hunter. 

I  believe  the  advancement  of  civilization,  the  extension  of  commerce, 
the  increase  of  knowledge  in  arts,  science,  and  literature,  the  promotion 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  the  development  of  countries  rich  in  undis- 
covered mineral  and  vegetable  wealth  are  all  intimately  identified  with 
and,  to  a  much  larger  extent  than  most  people  are  aware  of,  dependent 
upon  the  work  of  the  missionaries;  and  I  hold  that  the  missionary  has 
done  more  to  civilize  and  to  benefit  the  heathen  world  than  any  or  all 
other  agencies  ever  employed. — Alexander  McArthur,  M.P. 

They  are  revolutionizing  society.  They  are  waking  ancient  peoples 
from  the  graves  of  the  past.  They  are  kindling  a  new  passion  for  free- 
dom. They  are  breaking  the  bonds  of  ancient  superstitions  and  con- 
servative traditions.  They  are  breathing  new  life  into  multiplied  millions 
of  the  human  families.  If  there  be  a  rebirth  in  China — and  the  pangs 
of  new  life  are  being  felt  in  India,  and  the  dark  places  of  Africa  are  being 
wrested  from  the  dominion  of  cruelty  and  lust — if,  in  a  word,  the  thralldom 
of  ignorance  and  wrong  is  being  overturned  in  half  the  world,  the  com- 
manding figure  behind  the  whole  movement  that  is  doing  these  things 
is  the  humble  missionary. — The  Rev.  W.  F.  Oldham. 


210 


CHAPTER  XI 
CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

In  addressing  the  National  Convention  of  twenty- 
five  hundred  Methodist  men  at  Indianapolis,  Dr.  Robert 
E.  Speer  predicted  that,  when  the  future  student  of  his- 
tory shall  look  back  upon  our  times  to  inquire  as  to 
what  has  really  been  the  greatest  movement  of  history, 
"he  will  select  as  the  deepest  and  most  characteristic 
movement  of  this  time  Christianity's  readjustment  of 
its  mission  and  the  reassertion  by  Christian  men  of 
their  obligation  to  carry  the  sovereignty  of  the  gospel 
over  all  the  world  and  into  all  the  life  of  men." 

Great  moral  movements,  like  the  seas,  mingle  into 
each  other.  But,  if  we  could  clearly  differentiate  the 
Christian  missionary  movement  of  this  age  from  all 
other  movements,  we  would  be  forced  to  conclude  that 
this  movement,  measured  by  its  ideals,  its  scope,  its 
achievements,  its  effect  direct  and  collateral  upon  civ- 
ilization, its  ever-enlarging  plans  and  prophetic  hopes, 
is  the  most  sublime  and  morally  fruitful  movement  in 
the  present-day  history  of  the  world.  Upon  no  feature 
of  the  Church  did  its  divine  Founder  lay  more  stress 
than  upon  its  missionary  character.  His  last  and  de- 
cisive message  to  the  Church  bade  it  go  into  all  the 
world  and  disciple  all  the  nations. 

The  relentless  edict  of  persecution  forced  the  primitive 
Church    early    into    missionary    activities.     Persecution 


212      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

hunted  and  scattered  the  early  disciples  into  all  the 
provinces  of  the  Mediterranean.  But  in  whatever 
territories  these  pursued  disciples  took  refuge,  they 
carried  the  ardent  testimony  of  their  Master's  gospel. 
Christianity,  by  its  own  propulsions,  spread  rapidly 
from  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  not  only  to  north- 
ern Africa,  but  throughout  the  territories  of  Europe. 
It  accompanied  the  earliest  migrations  to  America,  and 
established  itself  as  the  dominant  religious  faith  of 
the  New  World. 

The  term  "Christendom"  has  long  stood  as  the  synonym 
of  a  large  group  of  nations  which  together  compose  the 
world's  most  advanced  and  powerful  civilizations.  But 
in  the  great  body  of  Christendom  the  distinctive  con- 
ception of  missions  as  now  construed,  like  many  other 
of  the  implicit  and  vital  teachings  of  Christ,  has  come 
to  late  expression.  In  the  days  of  his  flesh,  Christ's 
patience  was  evidently  greatly  tried  by  the  lack  of 
spiritual  discernment  so  manifest  in  his  disciples.  Few 
facts  can  more  greatly  attest  the  blindness  of  the  Church 
through  long  ages  than  its  lack  of  vision  of,  its  indiffer- 
ence to,  its  skepticism  concerning,  its  duty  to  constitute 
itself  a  missionary  evangel  to  all  the  world. 

Practically,  while  there  are  a  few  organizations  com- 
paratively old,  the  foreign  missionary  conception  is 
quite  modern.  While  on  the  Continent  and  in  England 
a  few  of  the  foreign  boards  were  established  in  the  later 
years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  most  of  the  effective 
organizations  of  to-day  are  less  than  a  century  old. 
The  American  Board  was  formed  in  1810,  the  Baptist 
Board    in    1814,    the    Methodist    Episcopal    Missionary 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  213 

Society  in  181 9,  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Missionary- 
Society  in  1820,  the  United  Presbyterian  Board  Mission- 
ary Society  in  1859. 

The  awakening  of  conviction  from  which  has  resulted 
the  foreign  missionary  movement  of  Protestant  Chris- 
tianity was  effected  in  the  face  of  great  indifference, 
even  of  opposition.  When,  only  a  little  more  than  a 
hundred  years  ago,  William  Carey  arose  in  a  Baptist 
Assembly  to  inquire  if  Christ's  command  to  his  apostles 
to  go  "into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel"  did 
not  apply  to  the  present  time,  the  president  curtly 
replied:  "Sit  down,  young  man.  When  it  pleases  God 
to  convert  the  heathen,  he  will  do  it  without  your  help."1 

The  attitude  of  the  great  "Honorable  East  India 
Company,"  practically  wielding  England's  control  of 
the  Indian  continent,  is  well  known.  When  it  was 
proposed  to  send  missionaries  to  the  East,  this  company 
officially  made  a  rejoinder  to  the  effect  that  "the  sending 
out  of  missionaries  into  our  Eastern  possessions  would 
be  the  maddest,  most  extravagant,  most  costly,  most 
indefensible  project  which  has  ever  been  suggested  by 
a  moon-struck  fanatic.  Such  a  scheme  is  pernicious, 
imprudent,  useless,  harmful,  dangerous,  profitless,  fan- 
tastic. It  strikes  against  all  reason  and  sound  policy, 
it  brings  the  peace  and  safety  of  our  possessions  into 
peril."  It  was  not  until  18 13  that  the  English  Parliament 
allowed  missionaries  to  go  to  India. 

When  the  Church  Missionary  Society  of  London  was 
organized  there  was  not  to  be  found  a  single  English 

1  For  a  convenient  grouping  of  several  of  the  historical  incidents  related  in  this  chapter. 
I  am  indebted  to  an  informing  and  brilliant  article  from  the  pen  of  Carl  Crow,  as  published 
in  The  World's  Work,  in  October,  1013. 


2i4      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

clergyman  who  was  willing  to  go  upon  foreign  mission 
work,  and  for  sixteen  years  this  Society  did  its  work 
only  through  foreign  helpers.  "In  1796  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  passed  a  resolution 
that  'to  spread  abroad  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel 
among  barbarous  and  heathen  nations  seems  to  be 
highly  preposterous — while  there  remains  at  home  a 
single  individual  without  the  means  of  religious  knowl- 
edge, to  propagate  it  abroad  would  be  improper  and 
absurd.'  " 

The  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  was  organ- 
ized in  181  o,  really  under  the  initial  leadership  of  a  few 
Andover  Seminary  students,  namely,  Samuel  Mills, 
Gordon  Hall,  and  James  Richmond.  But  such  then 
was  the  general  opposition  to  the  idea  of  missions  that 
these  spiritually  awakened  young  men  had  to  counsel 
together  in  stealth.  They  met  for  conversation  and 
prayer  upon  the  subject  of  missions  in  a  lonely  glen, 
but  were  greatly  rejoiced  to  find  that  their  hearts  were 
drawn  out  in  harmony  upon  the  same  subject. 

No  phenomenon  in  history  is  more  marked,  nor  prob- 
ably more  fraught  with  significance,  than  the  change 
which  in  the  last  century — it  might  truly  be  said  within 
the  last  twenty-five  years — has  come  into  the  thought 
of  the  Christian  Church  with  reference  to  missions. 
The  missionary  enterprise  is  now  a  common  enthusiasm 
of  Protestantism.  There  are  at  present  nearly  fifty 
strongly  organized  societies  or  boards,  the  common 
purpose  of  which  is,  under  the  most  efficient  auspices  at 
command,  to  establish  evangelizing  agencies  in  all  heathen 
territory.     As  a  policy  both  of  comity  and  efficiency, 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  215 

the  fields  to  be  occupied  are  so  differentiated  that  these 
various  organizations  do  not  enter  the  same  territory 
as  rival  forces.  A  general  result  is  that  mission  sta- 
tions, like  so  many  beacons  of  moral  and  spiritual  light 
in  the  world's  dark  spaces,  are  already  strategically 
planted  here  and  there  widely  over  pagan  lands.  Mis- 
sionary forces  are  increasingly  colonizing  the  heathen 
world. 

Only  a  century  ago  the  entire  gifts  of  Protestantism 
for  foreign  missions  did  not  exceed  annually  $200,000. 
In  the  last  year  England,  the  United  States,  and  Canada 
gave  more  than  $22,000,000;  and  in  the  same  year  the 
combined  gifts  of  the  world's  Protestantism  for  this 
cause  were  not  less  than  $33,000,000. 

In  the  entire  heathen  world  the  number  of  employed 
missionaries  from  Christian  lands  approximates  about 
21,500,  to  which  are  to  be  added  105,000  native  workers. 
The  direct  fruitage  of  missionary  efforts  in  the  fields 
occupied  is  represented  by  more  than  7,000,000  living 
native  Christians.  These  figures  are  most  significant. 
But  they  represent  only  the  merest  fraction  of  achieve- 
ments wrought.  The  eloquent  words  of  Dr.  W.  F. 
Oldham,  spoken  of  Methodist  missions  at  the  Indianapolis 
convention,  would  have  truthful  application  if  spoken 
of  the  entire  missionary  world.     He  said: 

This  slim  handful,  met  at  first  by  misunderstanding  and  racial  prejudice, 
by  open  opposition  and  stony  indifference,  has  kept  patiently,  steadily 
at  work.  They  have  had  but  a  brief  half  century.  During  that  time, 
working  from  five  thousand  to  ten  thousand  miles  from  home,  contending 
with  strange  languages  and  stranger  customs,  debilitated  by  unfavor- 
able climates,  harassed  by  disease,  criticized  abroad  and  till  lately  often 
sneered  at  at  home,  they  have  overcome  initial  difficulties,  broken  through 
the  apathy  of  great  masses  of  ignorance,  have  withstood  the  organized 


216      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

opposition  of  aroused  priesthoods  and  the  militant  frenzy  of  persecuting 
fanatics.  In  the  face  of  mobs  and  riots,  of  revolution  and  wars,  and  above 
all,  in  spite  of  powerfully  intrenched  religions  and  hoary  superstitions, 
they  have  inaugurated  changes,  they  have  altered  civilizations,  they 
have  witnessed  the  reformation  of  peoples  and  the  rebirth  of  nations; 
they  have  planted  schools  and  school  systems;  they  have  built  churches 
and  established  Christian  homes  and  Christian  worship.  .  .  .  Behold, 
what  hath  God  wrought! 

The  interest  in  missions  shows  no  decline.  It  is, 
rather,  that  of  a  sustained  and  growing  life.  It  is  a 
movement  fresh  and  vigorous  in  purpose,  such  as  might 
have  sprung  from  a  youthful  Christianity,  a  movement 
having  in  itself  all  the  energy,  hopefulness,  and  prophecy 
born  of  youthful  enthusiasms.  Christian  missions  are 
really  but  in  their  beginning.  Their  outlook  is  world- 
wide, their  spirit  world-conquering.  In  all  their  vocabu- 
lary there  is  no  single  suggestion  of  despair.  Their 
task  is  as  wide  as  humanity,  but  their  confidence  of 
success  is  absolute.  If  the  term  "enthusiasm"  can  be 
translated  as  God  inworking  in  human  purposes,  then, 
no  historic  cause  than  that  of  Christian  missions  has 
ever  drawn  to  itself  a  support  more  sublime. 

This  cause  has  won  for  itself  the  approval  of  the  world's 
most  observant  and  intelligent  thinkers.  To  speak 
slightingly  or  derisively  of  Christian  missions  to-day 
is  to  mark  the  person  so  speaking  as  both  benighted 
and  bigoted.  A  church  member  who  does  not  believe 
in  missions  is  pathetically  out  of  harmony  with  the 
most  enlightened  thought  of  the  age. 

Phillips  Brooks,  when  traveling  in  India,  wrote  home: 
"Tell  your  friends  who  do  not  believe  in  foreign  mis- 
sions (and  I  am  sure  there  are  a  good  many  of  such) 
that  they  do  not  know  what  they  are  talking  about, 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  217 

and  that  three  weeks'  sight  of  mission  work  in  India 
would  convert  them  wholly." 

Mrs.  Isabella  Bird  Bishop,  traveler  and  author,  says: 

I  am  a  convert  to  missions  through  seeing  missions  and  the  need  for 
them.  Some  years  ago  I  took  no  interest  at  all  in  the  condition  of  the 
heathen;  I  had  heard  much  ridicule  cast  upon  Christian  missions,  and 
perhaps  had  imbibed  some  of  the  unhallowed  spirit.  But  the  mission- 
aries, by  their  life  and  character,  and  by  the  work  they  are  doing,  wherever 
I  have  seen  them,  have  produced  in  my  mind  such  a  change  and  such  an 
enthusiasm — as  I  might  almost  express  it — in  favor  of  Christian  mis- 
sions that  I  cannot  go  anywhere  without  speaking  about  them  and  trying 
to  influence  others  in  their  favor  who  may  be  as  indifferent  as  I  was. 

This  kind  of  testimony  could  be  indefinitely  multi- 
plied. Christian  missions  stand  recognized  in  all  un- 
prejudiced and  intelligent  thought  as  occupying  a  foremost 
place  among  the  creative  forces  of  human  progress  and 
moral  enlightenment. 

As  to  the  current  movement  and  spirit  of  missions, 
I  have  seen  no  clearer  brief  statement  than  one  found 
in  a  single  paragraph  by  Mr.  Crow.     He  says: 

Every  year  the  Christian  army  advances  farther  into  the  territory 
of  the  enemy  and  adds  thousands  to  its  ranks.  Go  into  any  market 
town  in  China,  any  city  of  India,  into  the  jungles  of  Africa,  into  the  frozen 
north,  among  the  cannibals  and  lepers  and  barbarians,  into  the  far-away 
places  of  the  great  heathen  world,  and  there  you  are  sure  to  find  one  of 
the  officers  of  this  great  army,  whose  outposts  are  far  in  advance  of  those 
of  commerce.  But  this  is  no  motley  band  of  adventurers  intent  on  hum- 
bling the  Moor,  despoiling  the  Jew,  and  burning  heathen  villages  to  plant 
the  cross  over  ashes  and  dead  bodies.  It  is  a  carefully  organized  army 
of  Christian  civilization,  made  up  of  highly  trained  men  and  women, 
marshaled  at  strategic  points,  who,  under  brilliant  generalship,  are  laying 
siege  at  the  very  strongholds  of  heathendom.  Theirs  is  a  combination 
of  the  dauntless  spirit  of  the  crusader  and  the  deadly  efficiency  of  modern 
system  and  method. 

The  present-day  missionary  movement,  studied  from 
any  standpoint,  proves  replete  with  informing  interest. 


218      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

It  may  not  be  overlooked  that  the  very  central  main- 
spring of  information,  the  insouling  motive,  of  mis- 
sions is  primarily  and  exclusively  one  of  highest  moral 
and  spiritual  service  to  mankind.  The  missionary  mes- 
sage to  the  Church  and  to  the  world  is  one  that  calls 
for  the  most  unselfish  benevolence,  for  the  largest  con- 
secration of  both  gifts  and  service.  While  the  success 
of  missions  in  any  field  means  a  new  market  for  the 
wares  of  the  manufacturer  and  the  merchant,  the  cause 
of  missions  is  not  a  joint-stock  corporation  in  any  sense 
which  primarily  promises  a  return  of  cash  dividends 
to  its  investors.  It  asks  outright,  from  all  who  are  able 
to  bestow,  free,  large,  and  loving  gifts. 

To  those  who  have  no  appreciation  of  the  moral  uses 
of  money  the  whole  plan  may  seem  both  visionary  and 
Utopian.  But  to  all  who  have  entered  sympathetically 
into  God's  methods  of  helping  the  world  the  spirit  of 
giving  to  missions  finds  its  supreme  illustration  and 
enforcement  at  the  cross  where  God's  Son  freely  gave 
himself  for  the  world's  redemption.  It  is  true  that 
selfish  business  is  making  vastly  larger  investments  for 
revenue  purposes  in  mercantile  and  industrial  enter- 
prises than  the  Christian  Church  is  making  for  the 
promotion  of  its  missions.  But  in  its  magnitude,  in 
its  moral  significance,  as  an  index  of  high  faith  in  and 
devotion  to  a  divine  cause,  and  in  unmeasured  fruit- 
fulness  of  results,  the  Christian  consecration  of  capital 
and  cultured  life  to  missions  represents  the  sublimest 
altruism  now  known  to  the  world.  The  moral  values 
in  human  education  of  so  large,  enthusiastic,  and  con- 
certed giving  of  money,  of  so  heroic  devotion  of  individual 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  219 

lives  as  that  now  represented  in  the  support  of  Christian 
missions,  are  beyond  estimate. 

Modern  missions,  considered  as  a  business  enterprise, 
furnish  one  of  the  most  suggestive  chapters  of  present- 
day  life.  A  vitally  important,  though  the  least  romantic 
side  of  missionary  endeavor,  is  the  raising  of  funds  in 
the  home  Church  for  support  of  the  work  abroad.  The 
education  of  the  home  Church  is  being  conducted  with 
increasing  movement,  thoroughness,  and  breadth,  through 
publications,  school  training,  and  platform  addresses. 
These  and  kindred  agencies  are  awakening  wide  popular 
interest  in  the  work  of  foreign  missions.  A  great  edu- 
cational program  is  now  in  process  throughout  Prot- 
estantism. An  increasing  liberality  is  rapidly  developing. 
Financial  plans  are  in  vogue  through  which  it  is  sought 
to  reach  every  member  in  every  Christian  congregation. 
The  aggregate  annual  gifts  of  the  Churches  now  reach 
up  into  the  many  millions.  But  it  would  not  be  sur- 
prising if  within  the  next  ten  years  the  present  large 
giving  would  be  increased  tenfold. 

The  missionary  movement  is  commanding  the  serious 
attention  of  the  cultured  young  men  and  women  of  the 
present  generation.  The  Students'  Volunteer  Movement, 
made  up  of  Christian  students,  as  a  single  agency  sent 
out  into  various  fields  up  to  December  31,  191 2,  fifty- 
five  hundred  and  sixty-seven  workers  representing  the 
best  young  life  of  the  colleges.  In  addition  to  the  great 
number  having  entered  the  field,  there  is  in  process 
a  vigorous  movement  of  propagandism  extending  to  the 
leading  colleges  throughout  the  land.  Its  aim  is  to 
maintain   a   constant   educational   campaign   in   the   in- 


22o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

terests  of  missions  among  the  various  communities  of 
students.  As  a  result  many  thousands  who  do  not 
go  into  foreign  work  will  enter  upon  their  life  pursuits 
in  business  and  in  the  various  professions  bearing  with 
them  an  intelligent  and  lively  interest  in  the  cause  of 
missions. 

Since  the  Edinburgh  Conference  there  has  been  a 
vast  growth  of  sentiment  toward  a  general  federation 
of  Protestantism  for  the  missionary  conquest  of  the 
heathen  world.  There  is  at  present  no  movement  in 
the  interests  of  which  there  is  awakened  a  wider  vision, 
none  in  which  there  is  enlisted  a  more  far-seeing  and 
world-statesmanship  than  the  cause  of  Christian  mis- 
sions. This  work  is  so  engrossing,  its  function  so  im- 
perative, that  Dr.  John  R.  Mott  could  promptly  decline 
the  ambassadorship  to  China  rather  than  to  turn  aside 
from  the  work  of  organizing  Christian  forces  for  the 
spiritual  conquest  of  the  Oriental  world.  He  is  a 
veritable  leader  among  the  prophets.  And  there  is  an 
army  of  consecrated  lives  under  such  leadership  looking 
with  confident  expectation  to  a  near  day  when  the  most 
decisive  turning  of  the  heathen  multitudes  to  Christ 
shall  be  witnessed.  There  is  a  prophetic  feeling  brooding 
in  the  hearts  of  multitudes  that  God  is  preparing  the 
way  for  near  and  great  world-victories  for  the  king- 
dom of  his  Son. 

Missionary  management  as  now  conducted  is  no 
haphazard  affair.  The  great  funds  which  pass  through 
the  missionary  treasuries  have  all  of  them,  or  nearly 
so,  to  be  secured  from  the  free  offerings  of  the  churches. 
To  stimulate  the  spirit  of  giving  in  the  Church  at  large 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  221 

requires  an  inevitable  outlay  in  educational  effort,  in 
field  work,  and  in  other  ways.  In  consideration  of 
these  necessitated  expenses,  it  is  noteworthy  that  the 
administrative  work  of  the  large  boards  does  not  absorb 
more  than  about  five  per  cent  on  all  sums  collected. 
This  is  high  commendation  for  the  business  economies 
of  these  boards. 

The  boards,  as  a  rule,  are  housed  in  spacious  and 
well-adapted  offices,  are  composed  of  representatives 
from  the  best  reputed  clergymen  and  laymen  of  the 
respective  denominations.  These  boards,  collectively  the 
custodians  of  many  millions  of  dollars,  are  charged  with 
the  grave  and  delicate  responsibility  of  giving  the  most 
efficient  administration  to  these  vast  sums.  The  execu- 
tive officers  are  carefully  chosen  secretaries,  men  selected 
because  of  their  high  Christian  character  and  assured 
fitness  for  their  important  tasks.  These  men  give  their 
entire  time  to  the  study  of  mission  fields,  to  the  devising 
of  methods  for  the  instruction  and  quickening  of  the 
interests  of  the  Church  at  large  in  the  cause,  and  to  such 
other  duties,  not  a  few,  as  may  be  incident  to  their  office. 
The  members  of  these  boards,  excepting  the  secretarial 
officers,  render  their  services  without  financial  com- 
pensation. 

The  business  functions  of  the  board  are  so  adjusted 
that  no  single  factor  entering  into  mission  adminis- 
tration can  supposedly  escape  scrutiny,  advisement,  and 
direction.  There  is  not  a  candidate  for  the  mission 
field  who  does  not  pass  a  most  searching  examination. 
His  moral  character,  his  religious  experience,  his  edu- 
cational history,  his  sanity  of  view  and  conviction,  his 


222      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

stamina  of  purpose,  his  temperamental  adaptiveness  to 
missionary  work,  his  freedom  from  financial  embarrass- 
ment, his  physical  fitness — all  these  are  made  subjects 
of  closest  scrutiny.  The  missionary  boards  are  in- 
creasingly critical,  and  rightly  so,  in  the  process  of  accept- 
ing candidates.  Increasing  knowledge  of  the  heathen 
world  intensifies  the  necessity  of  sending  out  as  mission- 
ary workers  only  men  and  women  of  high  spiritual 
and  intellectual  attainments.  In  the  heathen  mind  there 
is  so  much  of  philosophical  discernment,  such  acute 
ethical  and  spiritual  insight,  as  to  make  it  not  only 
useless  but  a  travesty  to  send  missionary  workers  of 
inferior  intellectual  attainments. 

There  is  no  expectation  on  the  part  of  the  authori- 
ties that  workers  entering  the  fields  are  going  to  achieve 
at  once  spectacular  successes.  The  work  of  the 
missionary  is  one  requiring  infinite  patience  and  faith. 
The  climate  is  to  be  mastered,  the  languages  and  cus- 
toms to  be  learned,  and  the  respect  and  confidence  of 
natives  are  to  be  won  as  very  preliminaries  to  missionary 
usefulness.  There  is  little  in  the  life  to  minister  to  fickle 
fancies  or  romantic  notions.  The  missionary  who  enters 
intelligently  upon  his  work  is  prepared  to  expect  long 
and  laborious  waiting  before  he  shall  reap  the  fruits 
of  success. 

"Moffat  was  in  Bechuanaland  eleven  years  before 
he  baptized  his  first  convert;  Carey  waited  seven  years 
for  his  first  convert  in  India,  and  John  Beck  was  in 
Greenland  five  years  before  there  was  any  indication 
of  interest  in  his  work.  Missionaries  worked  in  Uganda 
four   years   with   no   visible   results.     Morrison   labored 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  223 

in  more  or  less  secrecy  in  China  for  twenty-seven  years, 
praying  for  the  time  when  he  would  be  able  to  hold 
public  meetings,  and  died  without  seeing  that  accom- 
plished. Gilmour  preached  twenty  years  in  Mongolia 
before  he  could  report  visible  results.  The  first  Zulu 
was  converted  after  fifteen  years  of  work."1 

We  have  noted  the  phenomenal  success  of  winning 
converts  to  the  Christian  faith.  But  this  success,  in- 
spiring as  it  is,  falls  far  short  of  measuring  the  results 
of  missionary  effort.  Wherever  the  missionary  has  gone, 
there  the  institutions  of  education  spring  up.  There 
are  now  established  in  the  mission  fields  of  the  world, 
and  as  the  direct  outcome  of  missionary  effort,  more 
than  thirty-two  thousand  nine  hundred  and  eighty 
schools  grading  all  the  way  from  the  college  and  the 
theological  school  down  to  the  kindergarten.  In  these 
different  schools  there  are  in  training  nearly  three  mil- 
lion, five  hundred  thousand  pupils.  In  the  list  of  insti- 
tutions named  there  are  eighty-six  of  university  or  college 
grade,  and  more  than  five  hundred  theological  training 
schools  or  classes,  most  of  which  are  entirely  devoted 
to  the  preparation  of  native  workers.  The  educational 
work  thus  summarized  is  monumental,  magnificent. 
But  it  represents  only  inside  figures.  It  is  but  a  leaven 
of  saving  influence,  self-multiplying,  which  more  and 
more  will  work  its  enlightening  way  into  and  through 
the  great  masses  of  native  workers. 

The  British  Blue  Book  of  1904  says,  "From  a  very 
early  date  missionary  societies  have  played  an  important 
part   in   the   development   of   Indian   education."     The 

1  Carl  Crow,  World's  Work,  October,  1013. 


224      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

boys  and  girls  educated  in  the  mission  schools,  in  many 
cases,  come  to  commanding  influence  in  government 
positions.  Sir  Andrew  H.  L.  Fraser,  late  lieutenant- 
governor  of  Bengal,  says,  "It  has  been  my  policy  to 
find  out  the  school  from  which  boys  who  are  candidates 
for  government  service  come,  and  I  find  that  the  best 
boys  have  come  from  missionary  schools  and  colleges." 

Dr.  James  S.  Dennis,  an  authority  on  education  in 
India,  says,  "The  educational  enthusiasm  which  plans 
large  things  for  the  benefit  of  all  classes  of  the  Indian 
population  has  pertained  almost  wholly  to  the  program 
of  missions." 

Hand  in  hand  with  the  missionary  have  gone  the 
physician  and  the  nurse.  The  mission  of  Christianity 
is  to  the  bodies  as  well  as  to  the  souls  of  men.  There 
have  been  planted  in  missionary  territory  sixty-seven 
medical  schools  and  schools  for  nurses.  Under  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  alone  there  are  operated  nineteen 
hospitals.  The  hospital  work  of  Christian  physician 
and  nurse  _  has  made  an  enormous  impression  upon 
the  heathen  mind.  It  lends  great  reenforcement  to  mis- 
sionary work. 

The  work  of  the  missionary  puts  so  beneficent  a  touch 
upon  manifold  human  interests  as  to  make  the  classifica- 
tion of  all  its  benefits  impossible.  I  again  take  pleasure 
in  quoting  from  Mr.  Crow: 

If  any  proof  were  needed  of  the  really  superior  abilities  of  the  mission- 
aries, it  is  to  be  found  in  their  contributions  to  science.  We  owe  to  them 
practically  all  our  present  knowledge  of  foreign  languages.  The  vast 
extent  of  their  work  along  this  line  can  be  appreciated  by  the  fact  that 
the  Bible  is  now  published  in  more  than  six  hundred  tongues,  though 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  225 

in  the  year  of  the  American  Revolution  it  was  known  in  less  than  seventy. 
Set  yourself  to  learn  one  hundred  Chinese  characters  or  a  page  from 
an  Arabic  dictionary,  and  you  will  have  a  new  respect  for  the  missionary 
who  is  required  to  master  one  of  these  languages.  Yet,  the  task  of 
translating  the  Bible  into  these  great  but  difficult  tongues  is  easy  com- 
pared to  that  faced  by  other  workers  who  have  found  tribes  with  a  lan- 
guage so  poor  that  even  the  simple  message  of  Christianity  could  not 
be  told  in  it.  There  the  missionary  has  undertaken  the  tedious  task  of 
building  up  and  enriching  the  language,  adding  new  words  or  new  com- 
binations of  words.  After  years  of  work  of  this  kind,  he  is  able  to  tell 
the  story  he  came  to  tell.  I  know  a  missionarj?-  who  has  been  working 
among  the  Eskimos  for  eight  years,  and  has  not  yet  been  rewarded  with 
a  convert,  but  he  is  not  discouraged.  In  a  few  years  more  he  will  have 
educated  the  natives  to  the  point  where  they  will  be  able  to  understand 
his  message,  and  then  he  expects  results. 

It  is  not  alone  in  philology  that  the  missionaries  have  distinguished 
their  professions.  It  was  a  missionary  who  first  explored  Africa,  and 
gave  the  first  impetus  toward  the  development  and  enlightenment  of 
that  great  dark  continent.  ...  A  Yankee  missionary  manufactured  the 
first  set  of  movable  types  for  the  Chinese,  thereby  making  possible  the 
development  of  the  Chinese  newspaper.  And  we  who  live  in  the  Orient 
owe  the  jinriksha  to  the  inventive  genius  of  another.  More  than  twenty- 
five  years  ago  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions was  able  to  fill  a  large  book  of  five  hundred  pages  with  a  record  of 
the  contributions  of  missionaries  to  science,  and  a  second  volume  of  equal 
size  would  be  necessary  to  bring  the  record  up  to  date. 

If  there  is  one  supreme  message  in  the  history  of 
Christian  missions,  that  message  is  not  one  of  discourage- 
ment. The  history  itself,  however  ample,  is  ever  amplify- 
ing; but  in  all  the  record  there  is  no  room  for  doubt. 
The  territory  of  missionary  achievement  is  one  lighted 
along  all  its  borders  by  the  radiance  of  a  coming  glory, 
and  across  all  its  spaces  herald  voice  answers  to  herald 
voice  in  proclamation  of  the  sure  and  victorious  triumph 
of  Him  to  whom  God  shall  give  a  name  above  every 
other  name  that  is  named  either  in  the  heavens  above 
or  in  the  earth  beneath. 


THE  INWORKING  GOD 


227 


Nevertheless  I  tell  you  the  truth:  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go 
away;  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Comforter  will  not  come  unto  you;  but 
if  I  go,  I  will  send  him  unto  you.  And  he,  when  he  is  come,  will  convict 
the  world  in  respect  of  sin,  and  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment:  of  sin, 
because  they  believe  not  on  me;  of  righteousness,  because  I  go  to  the 
Father,  and  ye  behold  me  no  more;  of  judgment,  because  the  prince  of 
this  world  hath  been  judged.  I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you, 
but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now.  Howbeit  when  he,  the  Spirit  of  truth, 
is  come,  he  shall  guide  you  into  all  the  truth:  for  he  shall  not  speak  from 
himself;  but  what  things  soever  he  shall  hear,  these  shall  he  speak:  and 
he  shall  declare  unto  you  the  things  that  are  to  come.  He  shall  glorify 
me:  for  he  shall  take  of  mine,  and  shall  declare  it  unto  you. — John  16.  7-14. 

"Spirit,  who  makest  all  things  new, 
Thou  leadest  onward:  we  pursue 

The  heavenly  march  sublime. 
'Neath  thy  renewing  fire  we  glow, 
And  still  from  strength  to  strength  we  go, 

From  height  to  height  we  climb. 

"To  thee  we  rise,  in  thee  we  rest; 
We  stay  at  home,  we  go  in  quest, 

Still  thou  art  our  abode. 
The  rapture  swells,  the  wonder  grows, 
As  full  on  us  new  life  still  flows 

From  our  unchanging  God." 

The  Kingdom  is  coming,  not  come;  the  Church  is  making,  not  made. 
Christendom  is,  in  a  sense,  a  word  of  the  past;  its  history  may  be  traced 
out  and  written  down.  In  a  sense  it  is  a  word  of  the  present,  representing 
a  mighty  living  force  to-day.  Still  more  is  it  a  word  of  the  future,  for 
as  yet  we  have  not  been  able  to  see  what  "Christianity"  fully  means. 
He  was  right  who,  in  answer  to  the  question,  Is  the  Christian  religion 
"played  out"?  replied,  "It  has  not  yet  been  tried."  The  disciples  of 
the  kingdom  are,  as  yet,  far  from  having  exhausted  the  resources  of  the 
treasure  house  intrusted  to  their  care. — W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D. 


228 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  IN  WORKING  GOD 

Under  the  charm  of  his  indescribable  personality, 
the  little  band  of  disciples  for  three  wonderful  years, 
more  or  less,  had  been  companioned  with  Christ.  In 
this  time  they  had  come  to  associate  his  continual  pres- 
ence with  them  as  indispensable  to  the  realization  of 
their  most  cherished  hopes  and  intense  ambitions.  When 
the  fact  really  came  home  to  them  that  Christ  was 
about  to  go  bodily  and  finally  from  their  presence  they 
were  grief-stricken,  appallingly  disappointed. 

It  was  then  that  Christ  said  unto  them:  "It  is  better 
for  you  that  I  go  away.  If  I  go,  I  will  send  you  another 
Comforter,  and  he,  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  shall  take  of 
the  things  of  mine  and  shall  show  them  unto  you.  He 
will  guide  you  into  all  the  truth." 

This  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  made  by  the  departing 

Christ,  is  one  so  infinite  in  significance  that  its  wealth 

of   meaning   has   hardly    yet   begun   to   be   understood, 

much  less  appropriated  in  the  faith  of  the  Church.     The 

Holy  Spirit  is  God  in  the  world  working  through  the 

ages  the  mission  and  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ.     Christ 

in  his  person,  in  his  mission,  in  the  purpose  for  which 

he  became  incarnate,  was  a  being  immeasurably  larger 

than  was  at  all  apprehended  even  by  those  who  stood 

nearest    him   in   the   days   of   his    flesh.      To    interpret 

this   being,  and    to    fulfill    his    purpose,  is  the    mission 

229 


23o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

of  the  Holy  Spirit  even  to  the  end  of  the  earthly 
ages. 

I  can  but  believe  that  in  Christian  thought  generally 
a  too  narrow  construction  has  been  given  to  the  mission 
of  the  Spirit.  We  have  emphasized  his  work  in  pro- 
ducing in  the  individual,  conviction  of  sin,  the  penitent 
purpose,  and  in  setting  the  seal  of  divine  pardon  upon 
the  truly  repentant  soul.  We  have  extolled  the  mis- 
sion of  the  Spirit  in  his  office  of  regenerating  and  sancti- 
fying the  life  of  the  believer.  We  must  never  give  less 
emphasis  to  his  work  in  these  vital  processes  of  individual 
salvation. 

But  the  Spirit  doing  all  this  does  immeasurably  more. 
He  is  the  one  vital  and  adequate  agent  for  directing 
and  effectuating  all  the  processes  of  Christ's  kingdom 
in  the  earth.  There  is  no  factor  of  knowledge,  of  dis- 
position, of  beliefs  or  thought  or  deeds  which  shall  con- 
tribute to  the  making  of  Christ's  kingdom  with  which 
the  Spirit  has  not  to  do.  It  is  his  mission  to  break 
down  the  standards,  and  to  banish  the  darkness  of 
paganism  by  the  introduction  and  substitution  of  Christly 
ideals,  and  by  the  continuous  and  increasing  revelation 
to  mankind  of  Him  who  is  the  Light  of  the  world. 

The  stress  which  the  apostolic  writings,  especially 
those  of  Saint  Paul,  lay  upon  the  function  of  the  Spirit 
in  dealing  with  the  moral  necessities  of  mankind,  and 
in  making  for  these  necessities  the  divinest  provision, 
is  something  little  less  than  amazing.  There  is  no 
moral  need  of  any  soul  for  which  the  Holy  Spirit  does 
not  seek  to  make  instant  and  adequate  response.  Saint 
Paul's   conception   of   the   ministry   of   Christ   through 


THE  INWORKING  GOD  231 

the  Spirit  was  so  transcendent  that  he  taxed  his  ut- 
most ability  and  the  capacity  of  language  even  to  attempt 
its  expression.  But  aside  from  his  divine  and  mar- 
velous dealings  with  the  individual  soul,  it  is  the  mis- 
sion of  the  Spirit  so  to  deal  with  the  entire  world  as 
finally  to  bring  it  under  the  scepter  and  dominion  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

The  processes  of  the  Spirit  are  moral.  Whatever 
standing-room  the  Spirit  may  have  in  man's  moral 
nature,  it  remains  true  that  all  the  lower  instincts,  all 
the  animal,  selfish,  cruel,  and  barbarous  heredities,  will 
rise  in  stubborn  contest  against  the  Spirit's  work  in 
the  individual  soul.  This  is  the  ground  of  ceaseless 
conflict.  To  gain  moral  supremacy  over  the  individual 
and  in  turn  over  civilization  is  the  Spirit's  supreme 
task  with  the  human  world.  This  mission  is  so  stu- 
pendous that  beside  it  all  enterprises  which  may  challenge 
interest  are  dwarfed.  The  triumphs  of  the  Spirit  over 
communities  and  civilizations,  historically  measured,  are 
by  slow  advances.  Christ  himself  compared  the  process 
to  leaven  which  a  woman  took  and  hid  in  three  measures 
of  meal. 

In  case  of  the  individual  the  Spirit  can  come  to  con- 
trolling possession  only  by  a  process  of  inworking  and 
transformation  which  makes  man  morally  and  literally 
a  "new  creature"  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  whole  category 
of  opposing  forces,  the  progeny  of  that  which  Saint 
Paul  depicts  as  the  "carnal  mind,"  that  mind  which 
is  enmity  against  God,  must  be  scourged  out  before 
the  soul  shall  appear  luminous  and  beautiful  with  the 
indwelling  Christ.     The  test  of  the  Spirit's  reign  in  the 


232      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

soul  is  that  one's  walk,  his  daily  conduct,  the  habitual 
outgoings  of  his  life,  shall  show  conformity  to  the  law 
of  the  Spirit.  "The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace, 
long-suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith,  meekness, 
temperance."  If  a  life  is  Spirit-governed,  it  will  put 
off  anger,  wrath,  malice,  blasphemy.  Neither  filthy 
communication  nor  lies  will  proceed  from  the  lips  of 
the  spiritually  minded  man.  In  his  relation  to  his 
fellows,  he  will  be  forbearing,  forgiving,  and  in  all 
things  charitable. 

In  the  Spirit's  larger  relation  to  the  world  the  same 
opposition  which  controls  the  unregenerate  individual 
is  arrayed  against  his  work,  only  in  the  former  case  this 
opposition  is  on  a  world-scale.  In  the  world-mass  the 
obstacles  which  the  Spirit  must  overcome  are  intrenched 
largely  in  laws,  customs,  institutions,  all  of  which,  in 
the  revealing  light  of  the  Spirit,  are  increasingly  seen 
as  subversive  of  progress,  or  as  working  positive  injury 
to  human  interests.  There  is  no  bondage  under  which 
mankind  is  more  helpless  than  that  of  custom.  A 
bad  custom  is  a  most  vicious  educator  of  society.  It 
holds  its  subjects  to  limited  views,  to  false  standards, 
and  closes  their  vision  to  new  advances  of  truth.  It 
has  often  given  the  binding  force  of  law  to  usages  which 
in  themselves  are  utterly  destitute  of  moral  worth, 
usages  which  in  no  way  have  contributed  to  the  values 
of  character.  It  has  often  so  misdirected  the  moral 
sense  of  whole  civilizations  as  to  lead  them  in  the  very 
name  of  Christ  to  monstrous  perversions  of  his  Spirit. 
If  the  moral  ideals  of  an  age  root  themselves  in  bar- 
barism, then  the  people  of  that  age,  if  nominally  Chris- 


THE  INWORKING  GOD  233 

tian,  will  have  a  barbarous  Christianity,  a  Christianity 
in  whose  very  name  they  will  commit  atrocious  out- 
rages against  both  God  and  man. 

In  a  large  way,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Chris- 
tianity, numerically  small,  began  its  mission  face  to 
face  with  a  solidly  pagan  world.  Its  moral  successes  in 
its  first  centuries  are  a  standing  marvel  in  history.  It 
brought  such  inspiring  hopes  to,  and  wrought  such  divine 
transformations  in,  multitudes  of  lives  as  to  make  its 
progress  irresistible. 

But  the  Church  born  at  Pentecost,  by  reason  of  its 
very  successes,  went  under  an  eclipse  of  barbarism 
lasting  a  thousand  years.  Its  faith  was  nominally 
accepted,  and  its  membership  nominally  espoused  by 
hordes  of  unregenerate  heathen.  There  were  imposed 
upon  its  life  the  philosophies,  the  usages,  the  godless 
policies  and  strifes  of  a  pagan  world.  During  this 
long  submergence  the  vital  flame  of  Christianity  was 
never  wholly  extinguished,  but  it  burned  only  dimly, 
fitfully  here  and  there.  Above  all  and  around  all  were 
the  overshadowing  traditions  and  ideals  of  pagan  thought. 
This  paganism  had  mistranslated  and  caricatured  the 
very  ideals  of  the  gospel.  It  had  foisted  upon  human 
credulity  base  and  injurious  conceptions  of  Christianity 
itself.  Thus  it  had  seized  the  very  name  under  which 
Christianity  had  won  its  greatest  victories  as  the  refuge 
and  shelter  of  philosophies,  customs,  and  conduct  which 
were  most  subversive  of  the  very  spirit  and  purpose 
of  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  overcoming  of  a  paganism  so  well-nigh  universal, 
the  emancipation  of  the  human  mind  from  its  thought- 


234      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

methods,  would  be  a  task  both  intellectual  and  moral 
of  prodigious  magnitude.  It  would  prove  a  task  for 
ages  rather  than  for  any  one  generation.  Indeed,  a  priori, 
it  might  be  asked,  how  could  it  be  possible  that  so  great 
a  world-paganism  should  ever  be  displaced?  It  was 
the  universal  phenomenon  with  which  the  world-mind 
was  familiar.  In  the  same  way  one  looking  upon,  and 
familiar  only  with,  winter  might  ask  why  should  winter 
ever  change?  But  presently,  by  unobserved  approaches, 
the  earth  sustains  a  new  relation  to  the  sun.  A  strange 
warmth  melts  the  snows,  and  under  the  genial  touch 
of  new  atmospheres  the  earth  teems  with  life  and  beauty, 
and  the  air  is  musical  with  bird-song.  And  we  say, 
and  say  rightly,  the  whole  is  one  of  God's  miracles. 

And  so  upon  the  great  world-paganism,  a  paganism 
intrenched  in  the  inheritances,  customs,  and  traditions 
of  ages,  there  has  come,  as  the  vernal  sun  in  nature, 
pervasive,  illuminating,  and  vitalizing,  a  movement  of 
the  Divine  Spirit  which  is  surely  transforming  the  cold 
and  forbidding  winter  of  human  history  into  the  beauty 
and  fruitfulness  of  a  new  moral  springtime. 

We  cannot  readily  overemphasize  the  greatness  of 
the  Spirit's  world-processes.  The  progress  of  the  spirit- 
ual enlightenment  and  transformation  of  human  society 
is  a  development  which  is  clearly  within  the  processes 
of  evolution.  The  development  is  not  always  uniform. 
It  is  sometimes  marked  by  dynamic  outbreaks  and  up- 
lifts which  might  properly  be  named  epochs.  Following 
the  long  moral  night  of  the  Christian  ages,  there  came  in 
successive  order  such  movements  as  the  Renaissance, 
marked   by   the   revival   of   learning   and   the   creative 


THE  INWORKING  GOD  235 

awakening  of  the  human  intellect;  the  maritime  dis- 
covery of  new  continents,  preparing  the  way  for  a  new 
world-commerce  and  a  new  intermingling  of  the  nations; 
the  invention  of  printing,  an  agency  for  the  multiplica- 
tion and  preservation  of  knowledge,  and  the  prophecy 
of  a  world-community  of  thought;  the  Reformation  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  a  movement  vastly  emancipating 
of  the  human  mind  from  the  spiritual  tyranny  of  ages; 
the  movements  of  free  thought  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries,  which  marked  a  just  and  triumphant 
revolt  of  the  human  intellect  against  the  bondage  of 
priestcraft,  of  traditional  fables,  and  of  spurious  phil- 
osophies ;  the  tide  of  a  new  spiritual  life,  as  the  Wesleyan 
revival,  transforming  and  uplifting  the  common  life  of 
a  nation,  and  projecting  vast  and  continuous  moral 
movements  into  all  civilizations;  the  creation  and  mul- 
tiplication within  the  last  century  of  new  sciences,  em- 
bracing all  departments  of  human  research,  covering 
material  nature,  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual 
life  of  man,  bringing  to  man's  vision  infinite  enlarge- 
ment of  the  universe,  unmeasured  extension  in  time 
of  creative  processes,  creating  for  the  human  mind  new 
standards  of  thought,  and  begetting  a  new  passion 
for  and  love  of  the  truth  for  truth's  sake,  placing  in 
command  of  man  a  universal  wealth  of  new  knowledge, 
and  yet  a  knowledge  which  is  but  the  prophecy  of  in- 
finite intellectual  and  moral  treasures  yet  to  be  realized; 
the  growing  realization  in  the  present  time,  through  a 
world-mingling  commerce,  through  a  world-diffusion  of 
common  intelligence  and  interests,  of  the  solidarity 
of  man,  the  world  over,  in  all  his  material,  social,  intel- 


236      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

lectual,  and  moral  needs,  all  of  which  is  but  the  sure 
prophecy  of  an  ever-closer  consolidated  community  of 
world-interests — all  these  are  but  signal  landmarks  set 
along  the  way  of  the  world's  spiritual  redemption. 

We  are  quite  accustomed  to  regard  all  these  as  move- 
ments with  which  the  historian  familiarly  deals  as  steps 
in  human  progress.  But  who  shall  tell  us  how  much 
the  Holy  Spirit  had  to  do  in  inspiring  the  human  mind 
for  the  discovery  of,  and  in  directing  human  activities 
for,  the  development  of  these  great  movements?  There 
should  be  no  Christian  doubt  that  the  Holy  Spirit  through 
the  centuries  has  steadily  wrought  by  means  of  these 
movements  for  the  bringing  in  of  Christ's  kingdom  upon 
the  earth. 

But,  however  wonderful  may  appear  the  advances 
already  realized,  in  considering  the  Spirit's  mission  as 
a  developing  process,  we  must  see  that  the  world  is  as 
yet  only  at  some  of  the  way  stations,  perhaps  early  ones, 
along  the  line  of  true  spiritual  progress.  It  is  the  mis- 
sion of  the  Spirit  to  take  of  the  things  of  Christ  and 
to  show  them  unto  men.  Christ  did  not  utter  all  the 
truth.  He  did  not  give  specific  statement  to  some 
truth,  probably  a  large  volume  of  truth,  which  may 
finally  require  application  in  working  out  the  world's 
redemption.  Let  it  be  granted  that  in  his  recorded 
teaching  there  are  contained  the  formative  germs  of 
all  moral,  spiritual,  and  social  truth  which  may  be  finally 
required  for  human  advancement.  He  did  not  attempt 
to  develop  these  germs  upon  the  thought  of  his  genera- 
tion. This  would  have  been  even  to  Christ  a  task 
impossible.     There    was    no    sufficient    development    of 


THE  INWORKING  GOD  237 

intellectual  apprehension,  of  spiritual  discernment,  of 
world-thought,  of  receptive  capacity,  to  which  he  could 
have  made  appeal  for  the  fully  developed  view  of  his 
coming  kingdom.  Among  his  last  statements  to  his 
disciples  was:  "I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto 
you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now.  Howbeit  when  he, 
the  Spirit  of  Truth,  is  come,  he  shall  guide  you  into  all 
the  truth." 

The  knowledge  of  Christ's  kingdom  is  now  vastly 
richer  than  was,  or  could  have  been,  true  for  the  men 
of  Christ's  own  time.  But  if  Christ  in  the  flesh  were 
with  us  to-day,  he  would  still  say  to  this  generation, 
as  he  said  to  his  own,  "There  are  yet  many  things  nec- 
essary to  my  kingdom,  but  ye  cannot  receive  them  now." 
The  Spirit  of  truth,  he  must  still  work  on  in  preparation 
for  those  further  and  higher  developments  of  the  King- 
dom for  which  present  human  enlightenment  is  not 
ready. 

Christ,  for  instance,  did  not  once  give  direct  utter- 
ance in  condemnation  of  slavery.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  of  the  utter  incompatibility  between  the  spirit 
of  his  kingdom  and  the  institutions  of  slavery.  The 
triumph  of  Christ's  kingdom  could  mean  nothing  less 
than  the  destruction  of  all  slave  systems.  Yet,  it  has 
required  eighteen  centuries  of  developed  Christian  thought 
to  abolish  slavery  from  civilization.  With  the  growth 
of  moral  knowledge  the  world  will  be  just  as  sure  to 
condemn  and  to  cast  out  other  evils  which  are  now 
domesticated  in  human  society.  There  exist  many 
social,  mercantile,  and  political  practices,  many  ideals, 
prejudices,   tempers,   which  at  present   are  either  cher- 


238      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

ished  or  tolerated  in  what  passes  as  good  society,  all 
of  which  will  be  rebuked  and  displaced  under  the 
standards  of  more  perfect  Christian  knowledge.  Happily 
for  such  a  prediction,  the  spiritual  education  of  the 
world,  the  application  of  Christian  thought  to  the  great 
realms  of  social,  mercantile,  and  political  activities,  is 
a  process  now  of  rapid  development  and  of  wide 
movement. 

This  is  an  age  of  bewildering  enrichment  in  knowledge, 
in  science,  in  invention,  in  its  creation  of  gigantic  mer- 
cantile enterprises  and  industries.  The  combined  effect 
of  all  these  and  kindred  factors  is  to  give  to  the  age 
a  distinctive  place  in  human  history.  But  with  the  ad- 
vent of  such  an  age  one  great  fact  to  be  observed  is  that 
the  welfare  of  man  as  an  individual,  the  weal  of  the 
social  and  industrial  organism  as  a  whole,  were  never 
so  sought  and  studied  as  now.  The  final  test  of  values 
in  all  thought,  science,  art,  industrial  and  capitalistic 
enterprises,  turns  on  the  decision  as  to  whether  these 
factors  are  promotive  of  human  welfare,  whether  they 
serve  in  the  last  resort  the  physical,  the  intellectual, 
and  moral  betterment  of  mankind. 

There  is  such  a  fact  as  a  divine  pragmatism.  Of  all 
the  wealth  of  modern  appliances,  appliances  which 
have  given  us  in  these  days  a  distinctive  world,  nothing 
receives  unreserved  approbation  except  that  which  con- 
tributes real  values  to  man's  individual  and  collective 
life.  Final  judgments  of  values  are  attained  only  by 
most  severe  and  sifting  processes.  Tests  as  exacting 
as  any  known  in  the  physical  laboratory  under  the 
dry  and  white  light  of  science  are  applied  to  all  thought 


THE  INWORKING  GOD  239 

and  to  all  activities  which  appeal  for  the  social  or  moral 
betterment  of  society.  It  requires  only  a  discerning 
study  of  these  testing  processes  to  discover  that  they 
are  governed  by  ethical  and  spiritual  judgments.  The 
Divine  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  never  absent  from 
their  operations. 

Under  this  divine  guidance  the  race  is  not  only  appro- 
priating an  ever-enlarging  wealth  of  knowledge,  but  is 
continuously  growing  into  clearer  moral  vision,  steadily 
being  lifted  up  from  animal  and  material  tastes  to  the 
plane  of  moral  and  spiritual  judgments.  Man  as  a 
being  of  unlimited  intellectual  and  moral  possibilities 
is  taking,  in  the  world's  thought,  a  place  of  ever-enlarging 
values.  New  standards  of  human  worth  are  being 
everywhere  lifted  up,  and  in  their  presence  institutions 
and  distinctions  built  on  lines  of  caste,  slavery,  race 
hatred,  wealth,  learning,  social  rank,  are  all  felt  to  be 
unworthy  barriers  if  separating  men  from  active  sym- 
pathy with,  or  service  to,  their  fellow  men.  God  is 
gradually  teaching  all  civilizations  bearing  the  name 
Christian  that  man,  whatever  his  race,  environment, 
condition,  is  a  creature  of  such  divine  possibilities  as 
to  dwarf  all  material  values  and  artificial  distinctions 
as  between  men.  And  so  everywhere,  and  with  accel- 
erated movement,  there  is  a  growth  of  humane  feeling, 
an  enlarging  sense  of  human  brotherhood,  and  a  higher 
valuation  of  any  service  rendered  in  the  interests  of 
humanity. 

So  true  is  this  that  the  ideal  heroes  of  the  age,  the 
men  and  women  who  take  the  first  place  in  human 
esteem  and   gratitude,   are  those  who  give   themselves 


24o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

in  most  generous  and  unselfish  service  for  mankind. 
Among  the  rich,  not  those  who  have  the  greatest  fortunes 
are  honored,  but  they  who  devote  their  wealth  to  great- 
est human  service;  among  those  of  privileged  life  in  any 
sphere,  not  they  who  dwell  in  the  spirit  of  exclusiveness 
or  selfishness,  but  they  who  use  their  superior  strength 
in  giving  hands  to  the  weak  and  in  uplifting  the  less 
privileged — these  are  they  who  wear  the  imperishable 
crown  of  human  gratitude.  Our  historic  heroes  are 
the  men  and  women  who  really  give,  not  their  belong- 
ings, but  themselves  to  the  service  of  their  fellows. 

If  we  scan  the  rostrum  of  the  ages  for  the  names  of 
those  whom  the  race  ranks  as  the  noblest  of  its  sons, 
names  that  will  never  die  out  of  human  gratitude,  it 
will  be  discovered  that  all  are  names  of  unselfish,  un- 
sordid,  and  non-mercenary  lives.  Luther,  standing  alone 
for  a  great  truth  against  the  throned  powers  of  Europe; 
Kepler,  fighting  his  toilsome  way  to  master  the  laws 
of  planetary  motion;  Milton,  blind  and  lonely,  writing 
the  great  epic  of  Puritanism;  John  Howard,  giving  his 
life  to  improve  the  condition  of  prisoners;  Florence 
Nightingale,  moving  like  an  angel  of  consolation  through 
the  Crimean  hospitals;  Wilberforce  and  George  Peabody, 
using  unstintedly  their  wealth  and  themselves  in  mis- 
sions of  philanthropy;  Abraham  Lincoln,  emancipator 
and  martyr;  Livingstone,  threading  the  malarial  wilds 
of  Africa  to  carry  the  gospel  to  its  barbarous  hordes; 
the  Morrisons,  the  Careys,  the  Judsons  and  the  Bash- 
fords,  giving  themselves  in  consuming  zeal  for  the  re- 
demption of  heathen  races;  General  Booth  planting 
civilization   over   with   Salvation   Army   camps   for   the 


THE  INW0RK1NG  GOD  241 

rescue  of  the  poor  and  perishing — these,  and  an  im- 
mortal multitude  of  others,  were  filled  with  a  heaven- 
born  passion  of  service. 

But  the  very  qualities  in  these  typical  characters 
which  command  for  them  the  abiding  love  and  admira- 
tion of  mankind  are  those  which  class  them  one  and  all, 
as  being  in  near  kinship  to  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Christ,  whose  qualities  it  is  the  office  of  the  Spirit  to 
show  to  the  world,  is  more  and  more  hailed  in  human 
thought  not  only  as  the  supreme  moral  leader  but  as 
the  most  exalted  servant  of  humanity.  Christ  as  re- 
vealer  emphasized  as  very  chief  truths  the  Fatherhood 
of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  His  entire  life 
was  characterized  by  a  continuous  outpouring  of  service 
for  human  needs.  His  love  was  utterly  unselfish,  with- 
out self-seeking.  That  he  might  show  his  perfect  human 
sympathy,  he  put  himself  in  helpful  contact  with  the 
most  abject  and  outcast  of  human  kind. 

In  order  that  he  might  pay  the  last  pledges  of  what- 
ever of  judgment,  redemption,  or  atonement,  which 
may  have  been  involved  in  his  mission  to  the  world,  he 
stopped  short  of  no  service,  no  sacrifice  which  those 
pledges  required.  He  emptied  himself  of  the  divine 
glory,  became  poor,  was  homeless,  lived  as  a  servant 
of  servants,  and  finally  along  a  path  of  agony  more 
bitter  than  was  ever  traversed  by  any  other  mortal, 
he  went  to  death  upon  the  cross. 

The  standards  of  thought,  of  motive,  of  service,  of 
sacrifice,  of  flawless  loyalty  to  God  and  truth,  as  re- 
vealed in  this  peerless  life,  are  receiving  ever-increasing 
welcome  and  hospitality,  are  more  and  more  recognized 


242      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

as  the  necessary  standards  for  the  final  civilization. 
And  so  it  is  coming  to  pass  in  these  later  days,  with 
ever-accelerated  movement,  with  ever-increasing  num- 
bers, and  in  large  constructions,  that  men  are  hailing 
the  "Golden  Rule"  as  containing  in  itself  the  final 
solution  of  the  racial,  the  social,  and  industrial  misad- 
justments  of  the  world. 

The  moral  movements  of  this  age  as  inspired  and 
marshaled  by  the  Holy  Spirit  are  vital  and  vast  beyond 
any  classification.  The  ideals  of  Jesus  Christ  are  being 
embodied  in  thought,  in  literature,  in  philanthropy, 
in  legislation,  in  industrial  and  social  philosophies  as 
never  before.  And  so  it  is  sublimely  true  that  the  in- 
working  God  is  commanding  ever-augmenting  agencies 
of  human  service  to  the  consummation  of  that 

.  .  .  far-off  divine  event 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves. 


THE  DIVINENESS  OF  MAN 


243 


What  a  piece  of  work  is  man! 
How  noble  in  reason! 
How  infinite  in  faculties! 

In  form,  and  moving,  how  express  and  admirable! 
In  action,  how  like  an  angel! 
In  apprehension,  how  like  a  god! 
The  beauty  of  the  world!  the  paragon  of  animals! 

— Shakespeare. 

If  ye  are  mystery,  I  am  mind.  Ye  know  that  the  soul  is  strong  and 
fears  nothing  when  God's  breath  bears  it  on.  Ye  know  that  I  will  go 
even  to  the  blue  pilasters,  and  that  my  tread  does  not  tremble  on  the 
ladder  that  mounts  to  the  stars. — Victor  Hugo. 

The  meaning  of  human  life  is  revealed  in  this:  that  nothing  less  than 
the  infinite  and  almighty  is  sufficient  for  it  to  work  with.  Man  standing 
beneath  the  implacable  nebulae,  in  his  pinpoint  of  space,  man  among 
the  eons  that  threaten  to  engulf  his  moment  of  time,  is  overwhelmed, 
annihilated;  until  he  learns  that  everything  he  has  to  work  upon  demands 
the  whole  power  in  and  beyond  and  above  all  these,  and  he  is  one  with 
that  which  fills  and  transcends  them.  If  the  power  which  presents  it- 
self as  the  highest  does  not  apply  directly  to  each  element  of  human 
labor,  it  is  not  of  that  unlimited  sufficiency.  When  simple  men  demand 
an  evangel  for  daily  works  and  needs,  their  requisition  is  the  infinite 
and  eternal.  When  idealists  aspire  after  the  highest,  it  is  not  the  highest 
unless  it  mingles  itself  with  the  lowliest  drudgery,  which  it  transforms 
into  the  universal  task,  God's  and  ours,  of  spirit's  transcendent  self- 
realization. — Charles  Henry  Dickinson. 


244 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  DIVINENESS  OF  MAN 

The  two  supreme  facts  of  Christian  revelation  are 
— God  and  Man.  These  facts  are  the  two  foci  of  the 
moral  universe.  These  facts  the  Christian  revelation 
invests  with  a  distinctive,  an  infinite,  significance  and 
value  which  from  no  other  source  could  be  possible  to 
human  thought.  God,  under  one  conception  or  an- 
other, has  always  been  a  postulate  of  thought.  The 
gradations  of  conception  about  God  which  have  been 
entertained  in  the  human  mind,  from  lowest  to  highest, 
form  well-nigh  an  infinite  series. 

Outside  of  Christianity,  Hebrewism  undoubtedly 
reached  the  loftiest  view  of  Deity.  The  God  of  the 
later  Hebrew  thought  was  a  God  of  unspeakable  majesty. 
He  was  almighty,  sovereign,  ubiquitous,  holy.  The  an- 
cient litany  and  song  voiced  the  story  of  his  loving- 
kindness,  of  his  tender  and  forgiving  mercies  toward 
his  people,  and  the  prophets  preach  him  as  a  God  whose 
righteous  and  beneficent  providence  ever  broods  over 
the  world.  But  if  we  had  no  other  revelation  of  God 
than  that  furnished  in  the  Old  Testament,  we  would 
still  be  infinitely  far  from  that  view  and  knowledge  of 
him  which  are  furnished  to  us  in  Jesus  Christ.  The 
God  of  the  Hebrews  would  remain  to  us  largely  a  God 
of  unapproachable  awe.  We  would  be  forced  to  think 
of  him  as  the  God  whose  voice  utters  itself,  and  whose 

245 


246      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

majesty  flames,  in  the  thunders  and  lightnings  of  Sinai. 
A  vision  of  this  God  sitting  upon  a  throne,  high  and 
lifted  up,  his  power  irresistible,  his  holiness  a  consuming 
fire,  would  be  one  to  cause  us,  as  it  did  Isaiah,  to  fall 
upon  our  faces  in  awe  and  fear.  Sovereignty,  unapproach- 
able majesty,  avenging  righteousness  are  the  attributes 
with  which  the  Old  Testament  clothes  God.  "Clouds 
and  darkness  are  round  about  him;  righteousness  and 
judgment  are  the  habitation  of  his  throne."  There  is 
more  in  the  picture  to  inspire  fear  than  to  beget  a  sense 
of  confidence  and  love. 

The  New  Testament  in  no  sense  detracts  from  the 
might,  majesty,  and  glory  of  God  as  set  forth  in  the 
Old  Testament.  But  it  presents  God  to  our  view  in  a 
sense  that  brings  him  infinitely  nearer  to  our  human 
needs,  in  a  sense  that  inspires  our  affection,  confidence, 
and  devotion  immeasurably  beyond  the  power  of  Old 
Testament  ideals  to  evoke.  In  Jesus  Christ  God  is 
set  forth  in  an  absolutely  distinct  relation  to  man  from 
that  declared  by  any  other  religion  known.  In  Christ 
God  becomes  a  new  being  in  his  relation  to  us.  The 
chief,  the  central,  significance  of  Christ's  revelation 
of  God  is  that  God  is  an  eternal  Father.  The  wonder- 
ful thing  about  Christ  is  that  he  is  the  Son  of  God. 
Christ's  relations  to  God  are  those  of  a  Son  in  holiest, 
closest,  and  eternal  intimacy  and  harmony  with  the 
Father.  The  one  purpose  in  the  gospel  of  Jesus,  the 
purpose  which  subordinates  all  other  movements  of 
God  toward  men,  is  to  bring  man  into  real  sonship  with 
God.  However  significant,  however  transcendent  its 
importance,  we  shall   get  at   the  core-meaning    of    the 


THE  DIVINENESS  OF  MAN  247 

atoning  work  of  Christ  only  as  we  interpret  it  in  the 
divine  purpose  to  bring  God  and  man  together  in  the 
eternal  relations  of  Fatherhood  and  Sonship. 

Here  alone  man  receives  his  own  highest  interpreta- 
tion. Here  he  discovers  that  he  is  not  made  to  be  a 
mere  creature  and  subject  of  government.  He  will 
reach  his  truest  state  only  as  he  takes  his  place  in  the 
divine  family,  only  as  he  becomes  a  son  and  heir  in 
the  household  of  the  eternal  Father.  This  is  Christ's 
thought,  the  supreme  purpose  of  his  gospel.  And  who 
does  not  see  that  in  the  moral  heirship  of  redemption 
as  thus  revealed  all  artificial  ranks,  obstacles,  and  castes 
which  men  have  created  between  themselves  and  their 
fellows  are  remanded  to  insignificance  and  nothingness? 
In  the  redemption  and  Sonship  of  the  gospel  there  is 
neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free, 
there  is  neither  male  nor  female,  for  all  are  one  in  Christ 
Jesus.  Thus  the  gospel  not  only  brings  to  the  world 
a  new  conception  of  God  but  it  brings  a  new  construc- 
tion of  man.  It  makes  all  men  potentially  creatures 
of  infinite  worth,  heirs  of  infinite  possibilities. 

The  value  and  power  of  this  conception  may  be  par- 
tially measured  by  the  historic  reforms  which  its  advent 
has  actually  wrought  in  human  society.  It  introduced 
a  new  view  as  to  the  essential  sacredness  and  dignity 
of  all  human  life.  History  is  clear  in  its  testimony  that 
prior  to  Christ's  coming,  even  in  the  most  refined 
civilizations,  human  life  in  many  forms  was  held  as 
among  the  cheapest  of  commodities.  The  master  uni- 
versally held  the  legal  power  of  life  and  death  over 
the  slave.      Many  instances   are  recorded   of   the    most 


a48      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

wanton  massacre  of  slaves  as  a  result  of  the  master's 
caprice. 

The  enlightened  Greek  valued  the  life  of  his  bar- 
barian prisoner  taken  in  war  as  no  better  than  that 
of  a  dog.  The  Roman  populace  in  the  palmiest  days 
of  the  empire  thronged  the  arena  to  amuse  itself  by- 
witnessing  the  brutal  slaughter  of  men  in  gladiatorial 
contests.  Such  murderous  exhibitions  awakened  no 
more  compunction  among  these  ancient  peoples  than 
would  the  slaughter  of  game  in  the  chase.  Infanticide, 
the  exposure  and  destruction  of  infants,  was  a  crime 
fearfully  prevalent  among  the  most  advanced  civiliza- 
tions, and  there  was  neither  law  nor  public  sentiment 
of  any  sufficient  force  to  arrest,  much  less  to  prohibit, 
this  fearful  evil. 

Christianity  introduced  an  entirely  new  ideal  into 
the  world's  thinking.  Even  the  very  slaves  were  in- 
vested with  divine  rights  as  the  children  of  God.  The 
gladiatorial  shows  long  persisted,  but  the  Church  excom- 
municated its  members  who  attended  these  exhibitions, 
refused  baptism  to  the  gladiator  unless  he  pledged  him- 
self to  abandon  his  calling,  and  its  preachers  and  writers 
ceaselessly  denounced  the  gladiatorial  contests  as  wicked. 
It  is  typical  of  Christian  influence  that  in  the  very  last 
of  these  contests,  in  the  year  A.  D.  404,  a  monk  named 
Telemachus  rushed  into  the  arena  to  separate  the  con- 
testants. He  perished  beneath  a  shower  of  stones 
which  the  angry  spectators  hurled  upon  him,  but  his 
death  resulted  in  the  final  abrogation  of  the  gladiatorial 
contests. 

And  so  practically  Christianity  everywhere  has  entered 


THE  DIVINENESS  OF  MAN  249 

her  effective  protest  against  the  wanton  destruction 
of  human  life.  It  has  stamped  infanticide  as  a  high 
crime  in  all  civilizations.  Its  exaltation  of  man  as  man 
has  resulted  in  the  abolishing  of  the  grosser  forms  of 
human  slavery  throughout  Christendom.  And  never 
more  so  than  now  was  its  voice  lifted  in  potent  protest 
against  the  oppression  of  the  weak  by  the  strong.  The 
emphasis  everywhere  of  its  demand  upon  strength  and 
wealth  is  not  for  authority  but  for  service.  Gibbon 
vividly  pictures  the  undisguised  and  general  contempt 
in  which  slaves  were  held  by  the  privileged  classes  of 
Rome.  It  was  generally  felt  that  nothing  good  could 
come  or  was  to  be  expected  from  the  slave  class.  Both 
their  moral  and  social  conditions  were  on  the  lowest 
human  plane.  The  slaves  as  a  class  were  without  aspira- 
tion and  without  hope.  They  were  simply  human 
cattle,  beasts  of  burden. 

To  this  class,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  Christianity 
came,  bringing  a  new  moral  life  and  the  inspiration  of 
new  hopes.  It  brought  a  philosophy  of  life  and  char- 
acter which  made  appeal  to  many  qualities  which  slavery 
had  developed  in  its  subjects.  Instead  of  stoical  inde- 
pendence and  patrician  pride  which  entered  largely 
into  the  manly  ideals  of  the  Roman  freeman,  Christianity 
enjoined  as  among  its  cardinal  virtues,  "humility,  obe- 
dience, gentleness,  patience,  resignation."  Christianity 
found  the  groundwork  of  these  qualities  already  laid 
in  the  life  of  the  slave. 

Its  first  great  moral  conquests  were  largely  from  the 
servile  classes.  The  large  number  of  its  converts  from 
among  slaves  was  made  the  ground  for  bitter  reproaches 


25o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

from  the  pagan  world.  But  Christianity  transformed 
the  life  of  its  slave  converts  and  crowned  them  with 
a  new  manhood.  Among  the  heroic  records  of  martyr- 
dom in  the  days  of  the  persecuted  Church  frequently 
appear  the  names  of  slaves.  In  Christ  they  had  found 
a  new  life  and  a  new  faith  for  which  they  were  willing 
even  to  die. 

These  historic  illustrations  may  simply  serve  to  show 
that  it  was  in  the  very  nature  of  Christianity  in  its 
practical  workings  to  lay  hold  upon  humanity  for  man's 
divine  exaltation.  Its  primal  declaration  to  the  world 
was  a  message  of  the  essential  sacredness  of  the  human 
soul.  It  came  to  all  men,  including  the  most  lowly  and 
unprivileged,  proffering  the  charter  of  sonship  in  God's 
family  and  of  heirship  in  God's  kingdom. 

The  initial  proclamation  of  Christianity  proposing  a 
place  for  all  men  in  the  citizenship  of  a  divine  democracy 
was  made  against  a  well-nigh  solid  wall  of  tradition  and 
custom  which  had  stood  through  unrecorded  time  sep- 
arating the  rich  from  the  poor,  the  privileged  from  the 
lowly,  the  learned  from  the  vulgar,  the  world's  aristoc- 
racy from  the  great  unwashed.  To  all  seeming  this 
wall  was  too  stout  to  be  breached,  too  high  to  be  scaled. 
It  would  be  the  ready  verdict  of  worldly  wisdom  that 
the  task  of  Christianity  in  its  presence  was  both  help- 
less and  hopeless.  But  Christ,  whose  vision  sees  infinitely 
beyond  all  appearances,  was  calmly  willing  to  stake  all 
on  the  final  working  out  of  the  fundamental  and  eternal 
potentialities  divinely  planted  in  the  human  breast. 

The  love  of  God's  Fatherhood  forever  moving  upon 
the  world,   the  Spirit  of  divine  truth  forever  working 


THE  DIVINENESS  OF  MAN  251 

in  the  human  reason,  will  at  some  time  dissipate  all 
opposition,  and  God  will  come  to  his  own  in  the  divine 
responses  of  humanity.  God's  task  with  our  human 
world  is  yet  possibly  only  fairly  begun.  The  consumma- 
tion may  indeed  be  remotely  distant,  but  the  great 
Father  will  suffer  no  final  defeat.  His  purposes  will 
be  crowned  in  a  redeemed  and  glorified  humanity.  A 
great  fact  which  has  hitherto  been  too  dimly  apprehended, 
but  a  fact  which  must  receive  ever-enlarging  translation 
into  human  convictions,  is  that  of  God's  purpose  in  man. 
A  luminous  apprehension  of  this  fact  must  prove  an 
important  factor  in  the  education  and  preparation  of 
the  race  for  final  harmony  with  God's  plan  for  the  world. 
The  potential  greatness  of  man  is  abundantly  attested. 
The  ancient  singer  seemed  to  catch  something  of  its 
vision  when  he  declared:  "Thou  hast  crowned  him  with 
glory  and  honor.  Thou  madest  him  to  have  dominion 
over  the  works  of  thy  hands;  thou  hast  put  all  things 
under  his  feet."  Hints  of  man's  greatness  are  seen  in 
his  achievements.  The  Greek  mind  has  been  the  world's 
schoolmaster  both  in  philosophy  and  in  art.  Plato 
and  Aristotle  bequeathed  to  the  ages  an  inexhaustible 
wealth  of  thought.  Greek  artists — sculptor  and  painter 
— have  furnished  the  most  transcendent  models  of 
beauty  for  all  the  world.  To  the  Roman  genius  the 
ages  are  indebted  for  the  creation  of  great  laws,  laws  so 
simple  in  construction  that  all  modern  civilizations 
dwell  in  security  under  their  cover,  so  perfect  in  applica- 
tion that  all  the  diverse  and  complex  activities  of  man- 
kind receive  under  their  control  orderly  direction  with 
conservation  of  the  rights  of  all. 


252      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

The  Semitic  mind  has  been  the  channel  of  the  highest 
religious  and  ethical  thought.  From  far-away  ages, 
and  from  the  luminous  heights  of  their  moral  attain- 
ment, the  Hebrew  prophets  have  stood  forth  before  all 
subsequent  ages  as  men  elect  of  God,  the  peerless  heralds 
of  righteousness  to  mankind. 

The  modern  mind,  in  addition  to  absorbing  and 
assimilating  the  knowledge  of  all  preceding  times,  has 
given  itself  to  the  physical  conquests  of  nature.  Human 
science  to-day  with  inquisitorial  spirit  invades  all  ma- 
terial and  psychic  realms,  demanding  to  know  the  final 
truth,  the  last  secret  that  may  be  anywhere  resident 
in  them  all.  The  spirit  of  invention  has,  as  by  a  miracle, 
captured  and  harnessed  for  the  innumerable  and  ever- 
multiplying  uses  of  life  the  hidden  forces  of  nature. 
The  oceans  are  conquered  and  traversed  by  triumphant 
fleets  of  merchandise.  Continental  spaces  have  been 
annihilated  by  steam  and  electric-sped  chariots.  The 
most  diverse  and  antipodal  races  are  brought  into  a 
near  and  single  community  of  intelligence  and  interest 
by  the  electric  flash  which  instantly  transmits  all  thought 
and  achievement  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Human 
industry,  guided  by  intelligence,  is  a  march  of  triumphal 
conquest  and  annexation  into  all  the  provinces  of  nature. 
The  dynamic  forces  of  the  globe  are  surrendering  them- 
selves in  tribute  to  man's  all-conquering  genius. 

In  reviewing  the  marvels  of  human  achievement, 
two  facts  merit  attention:  First,  man  is  greater,  vastly 
so,  than  his  creations.  Humanity  as  a  whole,  is  far 
greater  than  all  the  literature,  the  philosophy,  the  arts, 
the  laws,  the  religious  epochs,  the  sciences  and  inven- 


THE  DIVINENESS  OF  MAN  253 

tions  which  have  been  born  of  human  brain  or  heart 
or  hand.  The  race  is  larger  than  any  civilization  which 
it  has  as  yet  developed.  The  best  civilizations  are 
being  steadily  outgrown.  And,  so  man  as  a  single 
being  is  immeasurably  greater  than  his  greatest  achieve- 
ments. Shakespeare's  dramas  are  peerless.  But  Shake- 
speare is  by  all  heights  and  breadths  greater  than  his 
plays.  Edison  has  been  called  the  wizard  of  invention. 
But  Edison  sees  a  far  larger  world  than  the  one  he  has 
yet  conquered. 

A  second  fact  is  that  the  most  sovereign  achievements 
of  man  are  simply  for  service.  The  creature  to  be  served 
is  august,  a  being  immeasurably  more  potential  and 
noble  than  any  mere  instrument  of  service.  The  great 
philosophies,  the  great  arts,  the  great  literatures,  the 
great  laws,  the  great  inventions,  the  great  aggregations 
of  knowledge,  the  great  religions  are  all  ordained  for 
the  service  and  advancement  of  man.  Any  sane  and 
adequate  analysis  of  history  must  demonstrate  man's 
greatness  over  nature,  his  greatness  over  and  beyond 
all  his  own  achievements. 

But  it  remains  to  be  said  that  when  we  would  form 
approximately  some  true  conception  of  man's  potential 
greatness  we  must  enter  the  realm  of  prophecy.  All 
the  best  history  of  the  past  does  little  more  than  to 
suggest  the  dawn  of  man's  possible  future.  God  himself 
has  lifted  before  us  two  standards  from  which  we  can 
base  a  sure  prophecy  of  the  godlike  future  awaiting 
man.     The  one  is  the  Cross,  the  other  is  Evolution. 

In  approaching  the  subject  of  the  cross,  one  should 
feel   profoundly    that   it   is    of   unfathomable   meaning. 


254      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

It  is  a  subject  to  be  approached  only  with  a  penitent 
and  cleansed  vision.  If  Sinai  was  majestically  articulate 
in  declaring  God's  holy  and  eternal  hostility  to  sin, 
then  the  cross  of  Calvary,  as  not  all  other  revelations, 
was  God's  object  lesson  of  the  exceeding  hatefulness  of 
sin  itself.  Calvary,  whatever  else  it  may  mean,  means 
nothing  less  than  an  unmeasured  cost,  a  cost  prompted 
by  infinite  love,  and  volunteered  on  the  part  of  God, 
to  make  possible  man's  redemption  from  the  indescrib- 
able curse  and  doom  of  sin. 

But  for  the  present  purpose  I  elect  to  consider  the 
cross  as  indicating  the  measure  of  God's  investment  in 
the  interests  of  man.  God  makes  no  mistakes.  He 
makes  no  unwise  investments.  If  in  studying  the 
cross,  it  magnifies  into  meanings  too  large  for  our  meas- 
urement, if  its  significance  radiates  into  the  moral  im- 
mensities and  eternities,  we  may  not  forget  that  all 
its  transcendent  meaning  anchors  and  centers  itself  in 
God's  interest  in  humanity. 

God  sees  in  redeemed  man  values  which  not  only 
balance,  but  which  immeasurably  overbalance  all  the,  to 
us  inconceivable,  cost  of  the  tragedy.  In  reflecting  upon 
this  thought  we  must  not  permit  ourselves  to  become 
incredulous  because  of  the  vision  of  the  great  mass  of 
poor,  of  dwarfed,  of  sinful,  and  of  apparently  worthless 
humanity  with  which  our  present  observation  makes  us 
all  more  or  less  familiar.  We  must  make  Christ  our 
human  object  lesson.  As  Mary  did,  we  must  sit  in  rapt 
devotion  at  his  feet.  We  must  study  him  in  whom  the 
Father  declared  himself  as  ever  well  pleased,  until  our 
vision  shall  be  filled  with  God's  own  ideal  of  manhood. 


THE  DIVINENESS  OF  MAN  255 

Christ  is  the  kind  of  Man  into  whose  likeness  God  pro- 
poses through  the  transforming  grace  and  nurture  of 
his  cross  to  bring  all  men.  If  the  task  to  our  human 
belief  seems  insurmountable,  we  must  still  not  so  far 
forget  ourselves  as  to  question  God's  ability  to  bring 
it  to  pass. 

It  is  an  impertinence,  the  impertinence  of  a  conceited 
and  infantile  mind,  to  question  any  part  of  God's  strategy 
in  his  great  campaign  of  human  redemption.  When 
Christ  went  to  Calvary  no  one  in  the  universe  knew  as 
well  as  God  knew  the  poor,  the  degenerate,  the  degraded 
quality  of  humanity.  God  saw  it  all,  and  he  unhes- 
itatingly assumed  all  the  risk  of  his  redemptive  work. 
Men,  for  reasons  most  puerile — perhaps  because  they 
have  some  fine  mahogany  furniture,  perhaps  because 
they  think  they  have  refinement  of  taste,  perhaps  be- 
cause their  intellects  are  a  little  more  polished — affect 
to  despise  and  to  remain  aloof  from  the  masses  of  their 
fellows  to  whom  God  has  given  the  same  bounteous 
air,  and  a  vision  of  the  same  green  earth  and  the  same 
over-arching  heavens  as  to  themselves.  Of  all  our 
needs,  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  is  that  we  should  be 
lifted  above  the  petty  narrownesses  and  smallnesses 
of  much  of  the  world's  present  social  judgments.  God 
justly  measures  human  material.  He  proposes  from 
humanity  just  as  he  sees  it,  just  as  it  is,  to  develop  a 
divine  democracy  for  the  citizenship  of  his  kingdom  in 
the  heavens.  The  cross  testifies  to  nothing  less  than 
to  infinite  values  in  human  nature. 

Of  course  God  is  acting  on  a  long  calendar  for  the 
development  of  his  purposes  in  man.     The  gospel   of 


256      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

Jesus  is  a  gospel  of  immortality.  This  age  has  come  to 
be  so  absorbed  in  material  pursuits  that  the  vision  of 
immortality  has  passed  somewhat  under  eclipse.  Our 
thinking  to-day  about  the  glories  of  the  immortal  life 
is  well-nigh  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  values  of  that  life 
itself.  But  immortality  and  exhaustless  opportunities 
are  indispensable  conditions  for  the  development  of 
humanity  in  God.  The  present  earthly  life  at  best 
is  but  rudimentary.  Its  conditions  and  limitations  are 
such  as  to  exclude  the  vast  majorities  of  men  from  real- 
izing the  best  inborn  prophecies  of  themselves.  Men 
in  great  masses,  by  the  very  limitations  which  press 
upon  them  in  this  life,  are  shut  away  from  attaining 
the  ideal  either  in  the  sphere  of  intellectual  enrichment 
or  of  moral  development.  The  opportunity  of  such  is 
yet  to  come.  Immortality  will  furnish  them  the  limit- 
less landscape  and  opportunity  for  the  fullest  develop- 
ment of  their  powers.1 

Who  shall  measure  or  picture  to  us  the  heritage  of 
immortality  for  the  sons  of  God?  We  find  ourselves 
at  present  living  in  a  physical  universe  practically  in- 
finite in  dimensions  and  resources.  In  the  sphere  of 
intellectual  possibilities  the  immortal  mind  finds  itself 
placed  in  an  immensity  of  worlds — worlds  all  of  which 
are  under  a  common  sway,  and  the  study  of  which  it 
might  require  an  eternity  to  exhaust.  But  we  may 
not  forget  that  the  material  universe,  immense  and 
marvelous  as  it  is,  is  but  of  secondary  value.  God's 
real  glory  is  moral.     The   crowning   destiny   which   he 

1  In  this  paragraph  I  in  no  way  intend  to  lend  support  to  the  theory  of  a  post-mortem 
probation.  I  am  voicing  the  view  only  of  the  unlimited  growth  toward  perfection  which 
immortality  will  afford  to  all  its  subjects. 


THE  DIVINENESS  OF  MAN  257 

purposes  for  man  is  moral.  The  highest  pursuits  and 
enjoyments  of  the  sons  of  God  will  be  forever  spiritual. 
And  if  God  overwhelms  our  minds  by  the  revelations 
he  makes  of  himself  in  the  physical  universe,  what  in- 
finitely higher  moral  and  spiritual  revelations  may  not 
his  sons  expect?  While  eternity  progresses,  God  will 
forever  press  new  revelations  of  his  own  exhaustless 
glories  upon  the  unfolding  vision  and  receptivity  of 
his  children.  Not  to  the  most  inspired  vision  as  yet 
has  there  been  revealed  more  than  the  alphabet  of  man's 
infinite  possibilities.  But  as  the  alphabet  carries  in 
itself  the  potencies  of  exhaustless  literatures,  so  the 
best  that  has  yet  entered  into  the  visions  and  experiences 
of  prophets  and  saints  is  but  the  foregleams  of  intellec- 
tual dominions,  moral  attainments,  and  spiritual  fellow- 
ships which  forevermore  shall  translate  men  into  God's 
likeness. 

Our  best  vision  to-day  is  nearsighted.  We  are  hedged 
in  by  barriers  of  inheritance,  of  narrow  education,  of 
untrained  faculty,  of  skeptical  habit,  all  of  which  bar 
us  from  wide  outlook  upon  the  universe  of  our  real 
possibilities.  We  are  provincial  in  our  habits.  Our 
beliefs  are  narrow.  Our  spiritual  vision  is  not  adjusted 
to  telescopic  distances.  We  are  like  dwellers  in  caves 
by  the  seashore  rather  than  explorers  of  the  mighty 
deeps.  The  wings  of  our  souls  are  not  yet  trained  for 
familiar  flights  through  the  starry  spaces. 

But  the  Christian  revelation  inspires  the  faith  that 
this  being  whom  we  now  look  upon  as  so  limited  will 
in  the  immortal  life  find  scope  for  the  most  godlike 
development.     His  explorations  will  transcend  the  most 


258      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

nebulous  heights,  his  vision  will  range  the  eons.  His 
life  will  grow  ever  richer,  his  joys  ever  deeper,  his  good- 
ness ever  more  beautiful,  his  knowledge  ever  larger, 
his  attainments  ever  more  godlike.  The  wealth  of  his 
future  none  can  picture,  for  eternity  alone  can  com- 
plete the  history  of  his  progress. 

Now,  to  the  fact  of  man's  supreme  significance  in 
the  universe  so  inspiringly  affirmed  by  Christian  revela- 
tion, evolution  lends  a  wondrous  confirmation.  Evolu- 
tion has  no  meaning  without  God.  Unless  its  pathway 
from  dark  and  dateless  beginnings,  and  through  count- 
less eons,  leads  finally  to  the  portals  of  moral  empire, 
unless  at  the  goal  and  summit  of  its  purpose  there  are 
finally  to  appear  the  intellectual  and  moral  outworkings 
of  Divinity,  then,  evolution,  of  all  things,  would  prove 
a  monstrous  creed.  A  man  who  is  at  once  an  atheist 
and  an  evolutionist  is  one  who  might  well  view  life 
as  the  most  hopeless  of  blind  alleys — a  meaningless 
maze.  Evolution  may  perhaps  be,  as  many  thinkers 
believe  it  must  be,  accepted  as  the  dominant  philosophy 
of  the  universe.  But  it  becomes  increasingly  clear 
that  evolution  is  not  an  end  in  itself.  It  is  a  process 
which  is  seen  to  be  ever  working  toward  some  goal  not 
itself.  The  final  goal  toward  which  evolution  works 
is  something  beyond  an  earth,  or  a  sun,  or  all  the  starry 
systems.  It  has  wrought  toward  these,  and  has  worked 
out  all  their  wondrous  perfections.  But  if  this  were 
all,  the  universe  would  still  be  mute  and  meaningless. 

The  goal  of  evolution  is  a  universe  peopled  with  moral 
and  spiritual  intelligence.  This  is  the  final  worth  and 
significance  of  it  all.     Whatever  may  be  true  in  other 


THE  DIVINENESS  OF  MAN  259 

provinces  of  the  universe,  so  far  as  this  world  is  con- 
cerned man  stands  as  the  very  crown  of  creation.  Noth- 
ing beyond  man  or  better  is  to  be  looked  for  except 
man  himself  perfected.  Whatever,  then,  may  appear 
as  the  well-nigh  infinite  investment  of  the  creative  and 
ever-transforming  processes  of  evolution,  processes  which 
have  been  ever  at  work  through  engulfing  ages  of  time, 
evolution  itself  from  its  far  beginnings  has  with  unerring 
purpose  and  skill  been  directed  toward  the  final  making 
of  man. 

This  end  evolution  will  continue  to  pursue  until,  in 
the  cloudless  light  of  some  coming  eon,  man  shall  appear 
as  the  perfected  reflection  of  God.  Thus  the  philosophy 
of  evolution  lends  a  measureless  emphasis  to  the  in- 
tellectual and  moral  values  of  man  himself.  Man  is 
worth  all  the  investment  which  unnumbered  ages  have 
contributed  toward  his  production. 

It  is  this  view,  with  its  implications,  which  lends  un- 
measured significance  to  that  swelling  passion  of  the 
modern  world  which  voices  itself  in  the  interests  of 
emancipating  man,  physical,  intellectual,  moral,  from  the 
long-asserted  slaveries.  Man,  in  his  inherent  rights,  in 
his  essential  worth,  in  the  divinity  of  his  destiny,  is  coming 
more  and  more  to  stand  in  the  focus  of  the  world's  best 
thought  and  service. 

The  individual  to  whom  has  come  luminously  this 
broadening  and  uplifting  ideal  of  man  is  thereby  placed 
under  supreme  incentive  to  highest  living.  Nothing 
need  humiliate  him  save  the  consciousness  of  being 
untrue  to  life's  divine  aim.  He  need  not  even  yield 
to  the  fallacy  which  would  remind  him  of  the  smallness 


26o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

and  insignificance  of  his  place  amid  the  surrounding 
immensities  and  the  countless  ages.  He  has  a  right 
to  think  of  himself  as  a  being  toward  whom  God  has 
wrought  through  all  the  eons,  and  to  whom  God  makes 
possible  a  destiny  more  enduring  and  more  glorious 
than  the  light  of  all  the  suns. 

This  divine  view  of  man  is  destined  to  take  an  ever- 
growing and  controlling  place  in  the  common  thought. 
The  growing  sense  of  man's  worth  as  a  spiritual  being 
will  surely  displace  the  low  and  sordid  ideals  which  have 
so  largely  enslaved  the  past.  The  barbarism  of  many 
business  ideals  is  that  they  have  placed  more  worth 
upon  machinery  than  upon  man,  they  have  elicited  more 
care  for  dividends  than  for  the  welfare  of  civilization. 
That  labor  in  sweatshop  and  factory  which  stunts  the 
physical  growth  of  childhood,  that  dwarfs  both  its  in- 
tellect and  morals,  that  unfits  motherhood  for  its  func- 
tions, thus  robbing  posterity  of  its  normal  birthright 
— all  this  is  a  crime  against  civilization  which  would 
be  impossible  of  toleration  were  it  not  that  a  greed- 
ridden  community  has  been  content  to  rest  in  low  and 
brutal  views  as  to  the  worth  of  human  life.  Business 
methods  that  disqualify  motherhood  and  that  cripple 
childhood  are  a  very  atheism  of  infamy  in  God's  world 
of  humanity. 

When  man  comes  to  his  rightful  place  in  the  thought 
of  man,  as  he  surely  will,  then  all  society  will  be  morally 
sensitive  in  the  interests  of  childhood.  Motherhood  will 
be  regarded  as  a  function  so  holy  that  all  safeguards 
will  be  sentineled  around  it.  In  that  day  the  tempers 
of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  will  be  enthroned  in  human 


THE  DIVINENESS  OF  MAN  261 

society.  In  the  great  world  of  trade,  now  so  invaded 
by  motives  of  piracy,  an  enlightened  sense  of  equity 
will  have  been  substituted  for  all  unholy  and  destructive 
business  rivalries.  In  the  industrial  world  ideals  of 
manhood,  not  lust  of  gold,  will  be  in  control.  It  will 
be  a  ruling  conviction  in  society  that  God  is  dealing 
in  this  world  for  the  purpose  of  developing  a  race  of 
godlike  men.  The  age  foreseen  by  the  poet  is  drawing 
near — the  Golden  Age,  that  will 

Give  human  nature  reverence  for  the  sake 

Of  One  who  bore  it,  making  it  divine 

With  the  ineffable  tenderness  of  God; 

Let  common  need,  the  brotherhood  of  prayer, 

The  heirship  of  an  unknown  destiny, 

The  unsolved  mystery  round  about  us,  make 

A  man  more  precious  than  the  gold  of  Ophir, 

Sacred,  inviolate,  unto  whom  all  things  should  minister. 

— Whittier. 


MODERN  PROPHETS 


263 


New  occasions  teach  new  duties;  Time  makes  ancient  good  uncouth; 
They  must  upward  still  and  onward  who  would  keep  abreast  of  Truth; 
Lo,  before  us  gleam  her  camp  fires!  we  ourselves  must  pilgrims  be, 
Launch  our  Mayflower  and  steer  boldly  through  the  desperate  winter  sea, 
Nor  attempt  the  Future's  portal  with  the  Past's  blood-rusted  key. 

— James  Russell  Lowell. 

Cast  from  our  hearts,  O  Lord  of  life, 

Our  selfishness  and  pride; 
Help  us  to  choose  the  toiler's  part, 

And  suffer  by  his  side. 

Give  us  courage,  Lord,  to  fight 

With  thee  all  greed  of  gold, 
To  fight  until  thy  kingdom's  won, 

Thy  kingdom  long  foretold. 

Love  then  shall  reign  supreme  o'er  all, 

O'er  heart  and  mind  and  hand, 
Eternal  love  and  brotherhood 

In  all  this  storm-tossed  land. 

— Marion  Dutton  Savage. 

Most  of  the  people  whose  faces  you  see  in  the  Sabbath  journals  are 
of  the  upper  four  and  a  half  per  cent.  We  quote  the  four  and  a  half 
per  cent.  We  want  to  be  acquainted  with  them.  The  cockles  of  our 
heart  warm  when  we  mention  their  names.  Artists  paint  and  chisel 
for  them.  Dressmakers  design  for  them.  Grocers  cater  to  them.  For 
them  the  huge  hotels  are  built,  and  for  them  the  hired  singers  and  dancers 
yodel  and  caper  in  the  gilt  restaurants. 

But  things  are  changing.  Newspapers  have  found  out  that  it  is  the 
ninety-five  and  a  half  per  cent  they  must  appeal  to.  The  artists  of  the 
Renaissance  never  knew  anybody  existed  except  saints  and  nobles;  but 
we  have  in  the  modern  era  an  Israels,  a  Millet,  and  the  Dutch  painters. 
And  Rodin  turns  to  the  laborer  and  to  the  generic  man  for  his  models. 
Governments  are  more  and  more  legislating  for  the  great  masses.  The 
spirit  of  the  ninety-five  and  a  half  per  cent  pervades  Washington  more 
and  more.  That  is  the  meaning  of  the  currency  bill,  the  tariff  bill  and 
the  anti-trust  laws.  That  is  the  significance  of  the  present  liberal  govern- 
ment in  England.  Constantly  the  four  and  a  half  per  cent  are  retreat- 
ing in  the  legislative  halls  of  Germany,  France,  and  Italy,  before  the  self- 
assertion  of  the  ninety-five  and  a  half.  The  people  are  arriving.  The 
clear  thunders  of  justice  are  in  the  air.  Humanity  is  coming  of  age, 
realizing  itself  and  unloading  its  riders. — Dr.  Frank  Crane. 


264 


CHAPTER  XIV 
MODERN  PROPHETS 

If  into  Christian  thought  there  should  come  a  dis- 
tinctive, a  rising  and  swelling  tide  of  interest  in  human 
welfare,  it  would  be  safe  to  assign  a  divine  inspiration 
as  the  cause  of  such  a  movement.  That  such  a  tide 
is  now  invasive  of  Protestant  Christianity  admits  of 
no  intelligent  denial.  One  of  the  most  accredited  seers 
of  the  relations  of  the  Church  to  present-day  social 
conditions  says,  "There  is  only  one  great  creative  enthu- 
siasm in  American  Protestantism — the  gospel  of  a  saved 
society  as  well  as  of  saved  individuals."1 

The  evolution  of  ideals  which  call  for  the  betterment 
of  human  conditions  in  a  sense  inclusive  of  man's  entire 
life,  physical,  intellectual,  moral,  is  one  of  the  most 
pronounced,  insistent,  and  irrepressible  developments  in 
modern  Christian  thought.  This  is  not  to  say  that 
the  awakened  Christian  mind  has  not  always  been 
actively  solicitous  in  the  interest  of  man's  all-around 
welfare.  It  is  in  the  very  nature  of  Christian  experience 
to  kindle  in  the  breast  of  its  possessor  the  spirit  of  active 
sympathy  with  human  needs.  A  genuine  Christianity 
has  always  been  characterized  by  a  generous  charity 
for  the  assuagement  of  man's  physical  woes.  This  has 
been  true  in  Catholic  and  Protestant  Christianity  alike. 

No  better  examples  in  illustration  could  be  asked  for 

1  Shailer  Mathews. 

265 


266      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

than  are  furnished  in  Francis  Assisi  and  in  John  Wesley. 
Both  were  eminent  as  saints,  both  great  preachers, 
both  voluntarily  yielded  themselves  to  a  life  of  poverty, 
both,  like  their  Master,  spent  themselves  in  a  constant 
ministry  of  loving  service  to  the  poor,  the  needy,  and 
the  sick.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  man  has  ever  been 
deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  who  has 
not  been  moved  to  benevolence  both  in  spirit  and  in 
action. 

But  at  the  heart  of  the  present-day  Christian  enthu- 
siasm for  human  welfare  there  is  a  motive  far  more 
propelling  and  dominating  than  that  simply  which 
prompts  to  acts  of  charity  toward  the  distressed,  or 
almsgiving  for  the  relief  of  the  needy.  A  deep,  per- 
vasive, and  growing  conviction  has  come  into  modern 
thinking  that  it  is  a  part,  and  no  small  part,  of  the  mis- 
sion of  Christianity  to  remove  the  causes,  the  very 
conditions,  from  which  so  much  of  the  world's  needs 
and  illnesses  arise.  This  conviction  arises  from,  or  at 
least  is  reinforced  by,  two  great  facts.  First,  in  the 
phenomenal  and  growing  wealth  of  the  present  age,  in 
the  abundant  fruitfulness  of  nature,  there  is  made  to 
appear  a  sufficiency  of  resource,  if  it  were  equitably 
distributed,  to  bring  a  large  measure  of  physical  com- 
fort to  every  human  life. 

The  fact  can  neither  be  obscured  nor  suppressed  that 
in  present-day  thinking  there  is  a  growing  conviction 
that  the  products  of  prosperity  are  neither  being  ideally 
nor  equitably  distributed  among  the  producers  of  that 
prosperity  itself.  And  this  thought  is  by  no  means 
confined   to    socialistic   circles,    to   malcontents   in    the 


MODERN  PROPHETS  267 

labor  world,  nor  to  anarchistic  agitators.  It  is  a  con- 
viction which  is  stirring  the  warm  lifeblood  of  the  sanest 
Christian  thinkers;  a  conviction  which  is  receiving  due 
exposition  and  irresistible  enforcement  at  the  highest 
seats  of  Christian  learning.  A  near-coming  age  is  just 
as  certain  to  give  heed  to  this  conviction  as  though  it 
were  to  announce  itself  by  the  battering-rams  of  war 
thundering  against  its  very  doors. 

The  other  great  fact,  a  fact  divinely  certain  at  some 
time  in  the  evolution  of  Christian  thought,  to  come 
to  full  expression  and  recognition,  is  that  which  asserts 
the  rightful  claim  of  every  man  to  an  inheritance  in  the 
bounties  of  a  common  Father.  The  central  revelation 
of  Jesus  Christ  concerning  God's  Fatherhood  is  at  once 
the  most  revolutionary,  the  most  far-reaching  and  con- 
structive fact  which  has  ever  worked  itself  into  human 
intelligence.  If  the  stupendous  doctrine  of  God's  Father- 
hood is  true,  then,  the  twin  doctrine  to  this,  a  doctrine 
equally  true,  is  the  brotherhood  of  man.  If  all  men 
are  the  sons  of  God,  this  definitely  means  that  the  time 
will  surely  come  when  in  our  human  world  there  will 
be  no  longer  room  for  castes  which  cruelly  separate  man 
from  man,  no  longer  room  for  invidious  distinctions  be- 
tween the  rich  and  the  poor,  between  the  learned  and 
those  less  favored,  when  in  society  and  in  business  it 
will  be  no  longer  tolerated  that  any  man  because  he  is 
rich  and  powerful  shall  take  advantage  of  his  weaker 
brother. 

This  principle  ramifies  itself  into  all  human  relations. 
It  is  susceptible  of  infinite  application.  If  man  is  God's 
son,  if  he  is  embraced  in  the  redemptive  love  of  Jesus 


268      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

Christ,  if  as  immortal  he  may  have  a  career  of  deathless 
citizenship  in  God's  kingdom,  then  he  is  a  being  en- 
titled to  sacred  consideration  from  all  men. 

It  is,  of  course,  very  clear — nothing  is  more  painfully 
clear — that  the  world  has  not  yet  practically  learned 
to  place  these  values  upon  man.  But  if  the  doctrines 
of  God's  Fatherhood  and  of  man's  brotherhood  are 
divine  truths,  then  the  values  and  relations  for  men 
which  these  truths  call  for  furnish  the  only  right  standards 
of  human  measurement.  The  truths  themselves  can 
neither  be  destroyed  nor  displaced.  God  will  never 
vacate  his  Fatherhood;  and  only  by  self -forfeiture  can 
any  man  be  deprived  of  the  rights  of  sonship.  From  the 
beginning  God  has  had  to  deal  with  a  world  made  per- 
verse through  ignorance,  selfishness,  and  transgression. 
But  he  deals  patiently.  Gradually  the  divine  light  in- 
vades and  overcomes  man's  darkness.  There  are  times 
when  light  breaks  forth  suddenly  over  large  areas  of 
thought.  God  is  not  failing  in  his  purposes.  He  is 
surely  working  toward  a  civilization  in  which  the  sacred 
character  of  man  as  man  shall  have  central  and  regulative 
recognition. 

At  present,  though  well-nigh  unapprehended  by  the 
common  thought,  there  is  arising  a  great  new  moral 
education  in  the  Church.  This  movement  is  so  large, 
so  enlightening,  so  inspirational,  that  it  would  seem 
fittingly  characterized  as  the  foreheralding  of  the  mightiest 
revival  thus  far  known  in  the  interests  of  the  Kingdom. 
This  movement  has  as  its  forerunners  and  expounders  a 
new  school — a  school  of  present-day  and  inspired  prophets. 
This  school  specially  emphasizes  the  demands  for  social, 


MODERN  PROPHETS  269 

business,  and  civic  righteousness.  These  modern  men, 
with  conscience  and  vision  such  as  mark  their  kinship 
with  the  great  prophets  of  ancient  Israel,  are  fearlessly 
focusing  the  white  light  of  investigation  upon  all  con- 
ditions— social,  commercial,  and  civic — of  our  modern 
life.  With  patience  and  thoroughness,  they  are  master- 
ing the  very  anatomy  of  all  the  forces  which  shape  our 
modern  world.  As  men  moved  solely  by  high  and  right- 
eous purpose,  as  men  inspired  for  their  task,  they  are 
furnishing  a  new  exposition  and  application  of  the  ethical 
principles  of  the  gospel  to  all  conditions  of  presentday  life. 

We  call  this  a  new  movement  in  Christian  thought. 
In  its  deeper  and  distinctive  character  it  is  really  such. 
It  is  both  a  noteworthy  and  surprising  fact  that  less 
than  two  decades  ago  there  was  almost  no  distinctive 
literature  on  the  social  aspects  of  Christianity.1  To-day 
there  is  a  swarming  product  of  this  literature  coming 
from  the  most  virile  brain  of  the  Church.  One  message 
of  this  literature  to  the  Church  is  that  its  traditional 
administrative  methods  are  not  adapted  to  deal  effectively 
with  the  dynamic  exigencies  of  modern  life-movements. 
It  is  a  summons  to  the  churches  to  unite  their  counsels  for 
the  readaptation  of  old,  or  for  the  creation  of  new,  methods 
for  the  better  discharge  of  their  mission  to  the  world. 

The  spirit  of  the  new  prophet  is  not  flippant.  He 
is  made  grave  by  the  magnitude  of  his  tasks.  He  de- 
sires to  do  no  injustice  even  to  those  whose  practices 

1  The  names  of  those  leading  and  promoting  the  new  awakening  are  too  numerous  to 
be  listed  here.  Among  them  are:  Peabody,  Hill,  Nash,  Cunningham,  Brooks,  Keble, 
King,  Mathews,  Rausehenbusch,  C.  R.  Brown,  Leighton,  Ward,  Howerton,  J.  B.  Clark, 
Hall,  Dickinson,  Carlisle,  Plantz,  Cairns,  Strong,  S.  G.  Smith,  Clow,  Williams,  Gladden, 
Welch,  Earp,  F.  M.  North,  R.  T.  Ely,  E.  B.  Gowin;  and  these  are  but  a  few  of  the 
valiant  thinkers,  who,  on  both  sides  of  the  seas,  are  summoning  to  the  new  social  age. 


270      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

he  feels  forced  to  expose  and  arraign.  He  knows  but 
too  well  how  insidious  are  the  motives  which  hold  men 
in  bondage  to  courses  of  conduct  and  of  business  life 
which  cannot  be  approved  in  the  light  of  unclouded 
Christian  convictions.  He  knows  the  moral  fallacies 
which  deceive  men,  and  under  which  they  sincerely 
seek  self-justification.  He  utters  his  message,  let  it 
smite  where  it  may,  with  no  fondness  for  censure  of 
the  individual  wrongdoer,  in  no  spirit  of  malice  toward 
any.  Turning  neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left,  he 
seeks  to  place  himself  securely  and  only  on  those  prin- 
ciples of  equity  and  truth  through  which  alone  the 
righteous  interests  of  all  men  can  be  best  served.  In 
this  spirit  he  makes  no  compromises  with  corporate 
selfishness,  he  stands  in  no  awe  of  plutocratic  dictation. 

But  the  new  prophet  of  to-day,  as  the  prophet  of 
old,  must  lift  up  his  voice  against  wrongs  which  are 
powerfully  intrenched  in  the  heredities,  customs,  posses- 
sions, in  the  selfish  greeds  and  ambitions  of  men.  He 
must  direct  his  message  against  very  principalities  and 
powers  founded  in  social,  industrial,  and  political  in- 
justices. The  god  Mammon  rules  in  a  wide  realm,  a 
realm  which  grades  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  scale 
in  reputational  appearances.  His  worshipers  are  some- 
times numbered  among  pewholders  in  fashionable 
churches.  Some  of  his  most  loyal  subjects  take  high 
rank  as  philanthropists.  Their  names  stand  high  on 
the  lists  of  contributors  to  humane  benevolences.1     But 


1 1  am  immeasurably  far  from  any  intention  to  disparage  a  wealthy  church  member- 
ship in  itself  considered.  I  am  the  last  to  doubt  that  many  wealthy  Christian!  are  not 
only  men  of  highest  integrity  but  men  of  deep  and  conscientious  piety.  But  I  as  little 
doubt  that  in  too  many  instances  bad  rich  men  wield  too  much  influence  in  the  Church. 


MODERN  PROPHETS 


2/1 


the  same  Mammon  is  a  chief  counselor  in  the  director- 
ates of  the  saloon  and  the  brothel.  It  is  his  minions 
who  manage  the  nameless  underworld  traffics,  who  pass 
the  bribes  in  politics,  who  corrupt  the  police  forces, 
who  commit  the  graft  robberies  in  municipal  business, 
who  water  and  vitiate  the  stocks  of  corporations,  and 
who  sometimes  for  their  nefarious  ends  purchase  the 
influence  of  the  press. 

And  there  is  nothing  which  Mammon  so  much  desires 
as  to  be  let  alone.  He  has  great  plans  in  the  execution 
of  which  he  ill  brooks  interference  or  disturbance. 
He  takes  no  stock  in  fine  moral  distinctions.  He  sees 
no  necessity  for  honest  politics.  He  is  no  believer  in 
municipal  reform.  And  when  it  comes  to  such  ques- 
tions as  improving  the  conditions  of  the  poor,  of  giving 
to  labor  an  enlarged  share  in  the  fruits  of  industry,  of 
lessening  the  evils  of  the  saloon  and  the  brothel,  he  is 
an  utter  skeptic  as  to  the  possibilities  of  betterment  in 
the  situations.  He  says  these  conditions  have  always 
existed,  and  they  always  will  exist.  It  is  only  a  Utopian 
visionary  who  can  think  otherwise.  He  is  utterly  skep- 
tical and  obstructive  in  the  presence  of  moral  propo- 
sitions because  he  is  the  receiver  and  keeper  of  the  spoils 
of  all  disreputable  traffics  and  evil  processes. 

There  is  no  chapter  in  man's  history  more  discreditable 
or  hopeless  than  the  ease  with  which  in  multitudes  of 
cases  he  has  blinded  himself  to  moral  distinctions.  In 
the  direction  in  which  selfish  interests  have  impelled 
him  he  welcomes  no  moral  corrections.  As  by  the 
magical  illusions  of  some  black  art,  he  makes  himself 
believe  that  black  is  white,  and  that  evil  is  good.     Mem- 


2 72      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

bers  of  the  Honorable  East  India  Company,  amassing 
wealth  from  the  untrained  and  unenlightened  popula- 
tions of  India,  made  themselves  believe  that  the  intro- 
duction of  Christian  missions  would  be  "pernicious, 
imprudent,  useless,  harmful,  dangerous,  profitless,  fan- 
tastic." 

Why?  Doubtless  because  they  had  the  instinct  to 
perceive  that  the  spirit  of  missions  would  prove  inimical 
to  business  policies  which  could  not  bear  the  light  of 
the  Ten  Commandments.  It  is  only  a  little  while  since 
when  American  slave  owners  searched  their  Bibles  to 
find  divine  justification  for  their  institution.  The  traffic 
in  human  flesh  and  blood  was  defended,  and  no  doubt 
sincerely  so,  from  Christian  pulpits.  The  belief  in  the 
legitimacy  of  slavery  had  such  support,  that  even  in 
Boston  William  Lloyd  Garrison  was  mobbed  and  dragged 
through  the  streets  because  he  had  the  courage  to  utter 
his  indignant  protest  against  what  he  believed  was 
a  national  iniquity. 

There  is  no  traffic,  however  inherently  bad,  that 
yields  a  revenue  of  lucre  which  some  men  will  not  be 
found  to  espouse  and  defend.  There  are  many  lines 
of  business,  entirely  legitimate  in  themselves,  which  are 
under  nonapprovable  management.  There  are  industries 
so  conducted  as  to  give  the  impression  that  their  man- 
agement holds  manhood  and  even  life  itself  as  things 
most  cheap,  well-nigh  as  cheap  as  the  very  fuel  which 
is  cast  under  the  boilers  to  keep  the  wheels  of  these 
industries  moving.  Some  of  these  industries  employ 
armies  of  children,  small  and  tender  children,  who  ought 
to  enjoy  the  gambol  of  forest  and  meadow  and  open 


MODERN  PROPHETS  273 

sunlight,  children  whose  sacred  right  it  is  to  have 
guaranteed  to  them  the  best  advantages  which  organized 
society  can  furnish  of  school  and  training  for  future 
manhood  and  citizenship,  yet  these  industries,  for  the 
sake  of  keeping  pace  in  the  march  of  competition,  for 
the  sake  of  paying  fat  dividends  to  stockholders,  take 
these  children  from  the  sunlight  and  from  the  schools, 
and  herd  them  in  stuffy  factories,  and  grind  their  tender 
fiber  into  the  products  of  machine  and  loom,  with  the 
result  that  before  normal  middle  manhood  is  reached 
they  are  cast  out  withered  and  bent  with  premature 
age,  intellectually  and  morally  dwarfed,  physically  spent, 
fit  only  for  'the  slag-heap  of  wasted  humanity. 

The  average  legislature  has  come  to  construe  this 
thing  as  a  crime  against  civilization,  and  yet  it  is  astound- 
ing to  note  how  few  Christian  (!)  proprietors  have  from 
any  moral  compunctions  of  their  own  decided  to  dis- 
continue this  kind  of  childhood  employment.  There 
seems  in  lucrative  revenues  some  fell  power  both  to 
blind  and  to  bribe  the  consciences  of  men  who  profit 
by  the  same. 

God  only  knows  how  much  the  Church,  in  many 
instances,  is  shorn  of  moral  strength,  robbed  of  its  hold 
upon  the  affection,  respect,  and  confidence  of  the  poor, 
because  of  the  domination  in  its  counsels  of  some  man 
or  men  whose  business  life  and  methods  will  not  stand 
the  scrutiny  of  the  public  conscience.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  what  clear  and  positive  judgment  these  men 
have  as  to  the  limitations  and  proprieties  which  should 
be  observed  by  the  Christian  pulpit.  The  preacher  may 
feel  free  to  roam  eternity  as  far  as  his  imagination  may 


274      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

bear  him.  He  may  discourse  at  will  upon  the  beauties 
of  heaven  and  upon  all  post-mortem  delights.  But 
there  are  certain  provinces  in  this  world  which  he  may 
not  enter.  Except  in  glittering  generalities,  he  must  not 
preach  either  political  or  business  ethics.  He  dwells 
so  habitually  in  the  realm  of  abstract  meditation,  so 
apart  in  the  quiet  of  his  own  un vexed  professional  world, 
that  he  can  have  no  practical  appreciation  of  business 
life.  He  would  be  likely  to  make  an  unwise  exhibition 
of  himself  if  he  should  undertake  to  expound  ethical 
principles  for  business  conduct.  If,  before  election, 
he  should  preach  on  the  duties  of  citizenship,  he  would 
be  charged  with  indiscreet  meddling  in  politics. 

The  truth  is  that  the  worshipers  of  Mammon,  both 
in  and  out  of  the  Church,  desire  simply  to  be  let  alone. 
They  do  not  welcome  the  voice  of  any  true  prophet. 
They  are  the  children  of  an  ancient  ancestry  who  said 
to  the  seers,  "See  not";  and  to  the  prophets,  "Prophesy 
not  unto  us  right  things,  speak  unto  us  smooth  things, 
prophesy  deceits."  As  though  thus  they  could  escape 
a  vision  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel! 

The  message  of  the  modern  prophets,  like  that  of 
their  ancient  prototypes,  is  like  the  driving  of  a  plow- 
share through  all  the  subterfuges  of  unethical  social, 
industrial,  mercantile,  or  political  life.  The  mission  that 
crowned  the  Hebrew  prophets  with  undying  glory,  that 
installed  them  as  the  peerless  moral  teachers  of  all  sub- 
sequent ages,  was  essentially  political  in  its  character. 
It  was  a  mission  of  patriotism.  Their  mission  was  a 
trumpet-call  to  the  nation  for  social  justice,  for  the 
rights  of  the  poor,  for  righteousness  in  all  human  rela- 


MODERN  PROPHETS  275 

tions.  With  a  united  insistence  that  is  most  impressive 
when  carefully  studied,  the  prophets  declare  that  God 
does  not  accept  the  ostentatious  worship,  the  offerings 
of  prayer  and  of  sacrifices  in  the  sanctuary,  of  those 
who  are  the  oppressors  of  the  poor  and  the  friendless, 
who  are  defrauders  in  deals  and  who  suppress  the  wages 
of  the  laborer. 

"To  what  purpose  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices 
unto  me?  saith  the  Lord;  I  am  full  of  the  burnt  offerings 
of  rams,  and  the  fat  of  fed  beasts;  and  I  delight  not  in 
the  blood  of  bullocks,  or  of  lambs,  or  of  he-goats.  .  .  . 
Bring  no  more  vain  oblations;  incense  is  an  abomination 
unto  me.  .  .  .  When  ye  spread  forth  your  hands,  I  will 
hide  mine  eyes  from  you;  yea,  when  ye  make  many 
prayers,  I  will  not  hear:  your  hands  are  full  of 
blood."1 

For  those  who  violate  judgment  between  a  man  and 
his  neighbor,  who  oppress  the  stranger,  the  fatherless 
and  the  widow,  their  membership  in  the  Church  is  a 
mockery.  God  may  be  insulted  by  the  very  gifts  which 
they  pile  upon  his  altars.  Let  them  not  trust  in  lying 
words,  saying:  "The  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple 
of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  are  these."2  There 
are  those  to-day  who  store  up  the  spoils  of  violence  and 
robbery  in  their  palaces.  But  of  these  houses  of  rob- 
bery, the  Lord  says,  "I  will  smite  the  winter  house 
with  the  summer  house;  and  the  houses  of  ivory  shall 
perish,  and  the  great  houses  shall  have  an  end."3  They 
that  have  put  burdens  upon  the  poor  and  have  robbed 
him  of  his  share  of  the  wheat  have  built  to  themselves 

1 1sa.  1.  ii-is-  a  Jer.  7.  4.  •  See  Amos  3.  10-15. 


276      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

houses  of  hewn  stone,  and  have  planted  pleasant  vine- 
yards. They  have  afflicted  the  just,  they  are  takers 
of  bribes,  and  they  turn  aside  the  poor  in  the  gate  from 
their  right.  But  because  of  their  own  evil  practices 
"they  hate  him  that  rebuketh  in  the  gate" — that  is, 
he  who  exposes  dishonest  dealings  in  the  market — "and 
they  abhor  him  that  speaketh  uprightly."1  They  that 
swallow  up  the  needy  and  make  the  poor  of  the  land 
to  fail,  who  falsify  the  balances  by  deceit,  making  the 
selling  measure  small  and  the  price  great,  who  buy  the 
poor  for  silver  and  the  needy  for  a  pair  of  shoes — these, 
however  proud  and  mighty,  cannot  hope  to  escape 
punishment,  for  the  Lord  hath  sworn:  "Surely  I  will 
never  forget  any  of  their  works."2 

In  the  commonwealth  of  Israel,  land  was  the  source 
of  common  prosperity.  Isaiah  warns  against  inordinate 
private  ownership  of  land.  "Woe  unto  them  that  join 
house  to  house,  that  lay  field  to  field."3  "Woe  unto 
them  that  devise  iniquity,  and  work  evil  upon  their 
beds!  when  the  morning  is  light,  they  practice  it,  be- 
cause it  is  in  the  power  of  their  hand.  And  they  covet 
fields,  and  take  them  by  violence;  and  houses,  and  take 
them  away;  so  they  oppress  a  man  and  his  house,  even 
a  man  and  his  heritage.  "*  Not  least  among  the  features 
which  excited  God's  anger  against  his  ancient  people 
were  the  evil  habits  of  women  who  lived  in  luxury  and 
idleness  on  the  fruits  of  ill-gotten  spoils.  The  prophet 
likens  these  women  to  cattle.  "Hear  this  word,  ye  kine 
of  Bashan,  that  are  in  the  mountain  of  Samaria,  which 
oppress  the  poor,  which  crush  the  needy.  .  .  .  The  Lord 

1  See  Amos  5.  10.  » Ibid.  8.  4-7.  »  Isa.  5.  8.  *  Micah  2.  I,  2. 


MODERN  PROPHETS  277 

God  hath  sworn  by  his  holiness,  that,  lo,  the  day  shall 
come  upon  you,  that  he  will  take  you  away  with  hooks, 
and  your  posterity  with  fishhooks."1 

A  review  of  the  prophetic  eras  of  Israel  and  Judah 
cannot  fail  strikingly  to  impress  us  with  the  similarity 
of  the  moral  features  of  those  eras  as  compared  with 
the  present.  The  same  evils  which  excited  the  indig- 
nation of  the  ancient  prophets  have  sprung  up  abun- 
dantly in  our  own  prosperous  civilization.  If,  anciently, 
there  was  a  providential  demand  for  the  prophet,  that 
demand  is  certainly  not  less  in  the  present.  Both  the 
wealth  and  the  corruptions  of  Israel  and  Judah,  as 
compared  with  those  of  our  own  day,  were  on  a  very 
minute  scale.  Beyond  anything  dreamed  of  in  ancient 
Syria  our  populations  are  vast,  our  social  civilizations 
complex,  the  power  of  capital  incomparable. 

To  this  civilization,  this  civilization  of  great  complexity, 
in  which  side  by  side  with  superlative  excellencies  there 
inhere  gigantic  wrongs,  a  new  race  of  prophets  has  come. 
These  men  are  expert  students  of  modern  world  con- 
ditions. Their  task  is  enormous,  but  to  their  aid  science 
has  brought  every  appliance.  All  that  the  world's 
most  enlightened  advancement  can  contribute  to  knowl- 
edge is  at  the  disposal  of  these  men.  All  history,  lu- 
minously at  their  command,  contributes  its  lessons  of 
the  past.  A  world-comprehending  information  comes 
daily  to  their  hand.  The  work  of  innumerable  experts 
in  every  department  of  research,  in  cyclopedic  system, 
is  before  them.  The  sociological  conditions  of  both 
city   and   country,    as   scientifically   secured,    are   their 

1  Amos  4.  1,  a. 


278      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

possession.  International  and  interracial  relations  in 
their  action  and  reaction  upon  world-interests,  and  all 
the  problems  which  these  relations  reveal  for  world- 
solution,  are  now  in  view  as  never  before.  The  power 
of  capital,  its  multiplex  uses  in  civilization,  the  regal 
conditions  of  wealth;  the  vast  army  of  labor,  the  prob- 
lems of  poverty,  the  growing  and  crying  discontents 
of  the  poor;  the  menacing,  and  seemingly  irreconcilable, 
alienations  between  capital  and  labor — all  these,  with 
all  other  questions  which  they  involve,  are  lifted  into 
clear  light  before  the  vision  of  these  men. 

If  never  before  any  school  of  world-students  entered 
upon  a  mission  so  large,  so  difficult,  certainly  never  be- 
fore did  any  men  enter  upon  their  work  with  such  a 
wealth  of  equipment  and  advantage  at  their  disposal. 
Who  are  these  modern  prophets  now  facing  these  numer- 
ous problems?  They  are  men  of  high  culture,  men  of 
vision  who  have  both  large  insight  into  and  outlook 
upon  life.  They  are  patriots,  men  with  a  large  love 
of  country.  They  are  lovers  of  their  kind,  men  who 
see  the  larger  possibilities  in  human  nature,  and  who 
ardently  desire  to  remove  obstacles  to  progress  and  to 
promote  the  conditions  through  which  all  men  may 
come  to  their  best. 

They  are  independent  thinkers.  They  are  not  the 
hired  creatures  of  either  corporate  or  private  interests. 
They  are  not  partisans.  Their  vision  is  not  blinded  by 
greed.  They  are  unselfish  workers  for  humanity.  They 
have  the  courage  of  their  convictions.  The  most  fruit- 
ful source  of  their  ideals  is  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
They  exalt  Christ  himself  as  the  supreme  Teacher  and 


MODERN  PROPHETS  279 

Exemplar  of  the  new  humanity.  They  dwell  in  clear 
atmospheres  of  thought  and  of  observation.  The  moral 
qualities  of  the  social,  industrial,  mercantile,  and  polit- 
ical worlds  are  by  none  more  clearly  seen  and  measured 
than  by  these.  To  them  in  an  eminent  degree  is  given 
to  view  the  evils,  the  frauds,  the  injustices,  the  oppres- 
sions of  society  as  in  the  very  white  light  of  righteousness. 
Their  indignation  is  aroused  against  all  monopolistic 
policies,  the  execution  of  which  means  the  depression  of 
the  social,  intellectual,  or  moral  possibilities  of  the  poor 
and  the  defenseless.  Their  sense  of  human  worth  is 
so  supreme,  their  view  of  God's  impartial  love  for  all 
his  children  so  clear,  that,  as  in  the  case  of  their  ancient 
prototype,  the  word  of  the  Lord  is  in  their  hearts  as  a 
burning  fire  shut  up  in  their  bones,  so  that  they  cannot 
refrain  from  lifting  up  their  voices  until  the  Lord  shall 
have  delivered  the  soul  of  the  poor  from  the  hand  of 
evil-doers.1 

Such  are  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the  new  prophet. 
Unawed  by  the  traditions  of  authority  or  the  conspiracies 
of  evil,  he  utters  as  clearly  and  fearlessly  the  Lord's 
rebukes  against  the  failures  of  the  Church  as  against 
the  iniquities  of  a  despotic  plutocracy.  The  new 
prophetic  voice  is  no  passing  phenomenon.  More  and 
more  this  voice  is  commanding  the  ear  and  stirring  the 
heart  of  the  age.  The  new  prophecy  will  be  resisted, 
stoutly  and  valiantly  so,  by  all  the  forces  of  selfish  greed ; 
but  it  will  persist  until  it  has  clarified  the  vision  of  so- 
ciety. There  can  be  no  mistaking  the  signs  of  the  times. 
A  new  and  divine  education  is  setting  into  the  age.     The 

»See  Jer.  20.  9-13- 


28o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

atmosphere  of  such  a  movement  is  irresistible.  Like 
the  touch  of  a  spring  sun  upon  the  accumulated  snow 
and  ice  of  winter,  the  stoutest  barriers  of  misguided 
opinion,  and  of  greed-born  prejudices  will  be  dissolved 
under  its  power.  New  standards  of  public  opinion  will 
be  lifted  up,  old  and  good  ideals  will  be  reinforced  and 
new  ones  enthroned.  God's  ideal  of  man  will  come 
into  the  clearer  light,  and  new  views  of  philanthropy  and 
service  will  have  larger  sway. 

If  we  really  believe  in  the  earnestness  of  God's  pur- 
pose in  connection  with  this  human  world,  it  is  both 
our  duty  and  privilege  to  cherish  and  to  cultivate  a 
prophetic  outlook  upon  the  future.  God  is  not  lifting 
his  hand  from  the  world.  He  is  touching  in  innumer- 
able ways,  many  of  them  undiscerned  by  our  vision, 
this  world  for  its  uplift  and  transformation.  We  cannot 
picture  too  bright  a  vision  of  what  this  world  will  be 
when  upon  its  face  God  shall  have  completed  his  own 
holy  city,  the  New  Jerusalem.  But  as  transcending  as 
may  be  our  conception  of  the  future  glory  toward  which 
God  is  working,  we  should  not  permit  ourselves  to  be 
blind  to  the  processes  of  the  present. 

Our  own  times  are  astir  with  the  intermingling  trends 
of  great  moral  and  spiritual  movements.  What  is  it 
that  has  begotten  at  the  heart  of  Protestantism  its 
newborn  passion  for  the  saving  of  human  society,  for 
making  of  this  world  itself  an  abode  of  righteousness? 
What  is  this  but  a  divine  movement,  a  movement  for 
the  ushering  in  of  Christ's  kingdom?  Before  our  very 
vision,  if  we  have  eyes  to  see,  the  Spirit  of  righteousness 
is    subsidizing    and    inspiring    innumerable    powers    for 


MODERN  PROPHETS  281 

the  upbuilding  of  the  Kingdom.  The  Church  is  not 
to  be  arraigned  as  either  a  failure  or  derelict  because 
it  does  not  at  first-hand  direct  all  these  forces.  It  is 
to  her  glory  that  she  has  so  inspired  the  spirit  of  her 
Master  into  civilization  that  the  State  and  a  multitude 
of  organizations  have  taken  over  many  of  the  functions 
and  much  of  the  work  which  formerly  were  directed  by 
the  Church  alone.  This  does  not  mean  that  the  Church 
has  lost  its  function,  nor  that  the  world  is  growing  less 
Christian.  It  simply  means  that  God  is  multiplying 
the  chariots  in  which  the  forces  of  his  kingdom  are  moving 
to  swifter  victory. 

All  movements  promotive  of  civic  righteousness,  of 
social  purity,  of  business  honesty,  of  individual  justice, 
of  the  common  rights  and  brotherhood  of  man  are  move- 
ments in  the  upbuilding  of  the  Kingdom.  Everything 
done  in  the  way  of  giving  better  place,  atmosphere,  and 
education  to  childhood,  of  furnishing  improved  physical 
environment  to  the  home,  of  putting  before  the  common 
vision  better  and  more  correct  ideals  for  practical  living, 
all  are  agencies  of  the  Kingdom.  The  passion  for  the 
real  things  of  the  Kingdom  was  never  so  potent,  its 
constructive  processes  were  never  so  effective  and  splen- 
did as  now.  The  higher  ideals  for  which  the  Church 
has  stood  are  being  carried  forward  to-day  in  a 
thousand  forms  of  beneficent  activity.  The  kingdom 
of  Christ  on  earth  was  never  moving  forward  so  visibly, 
so  vigorously,  so  triumphantly  as  now. 

If  compelled  to  admit,  as  is  doubtless  the  fact,  that 
the  Church  itself  is  having  a  somewhat  difficult  experience 
in  adjusting  its  formulas  to  the  knowledge  and  thought- 


282      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

1  processes  of  the  modern  world,  that  it  is  confronted 
with  the  necessity  of  critical  readaptations  of  methods 
to  enable  it  most  effectively  to  meet  present-day  needs, 
yet  the  truth  seems  to  be  that  one  of  the  profoundest, 
widest,  and  most  far-reaching  revivals  in  its  entire  his- 
tory is  now  in  process.  It  may  be  in  its  present  phases 
a  revival  of  educational  ideals,  but  nevertheless  a  revival 
which  holds  in  itself  the  prophecy  of  a  most  fruitful 
spiritual  future. 

This  revival  is  a  Christian  Renaissance.  Its  signif- 
icance is  in  its  translation  of  Christianity  into  terms 
of  modern  world  thought,  in  its  correlation  of  Christian 
truth  with  the  verified  scientific  thought  of  the  present 
age.  This  means  that  theology  is  to  be  shaped  by 
cosmical  and  biological  rather  than  by  governmental 
and  mechanical  conceptions.  It  means,  freed  from  the 
restraints  of  hierarchical  edicts,  liberty  for  the  indi- 
vidual to  pursue  his  own  spiritual  life.  It  means  that 
the  coming  era  of  church  life  will  be  characterized  by 
a  broad  hospitality  to  the  quest  of  truth,  that  the  ruling 
spirit  of  the  Christian  community  shall  be  one  of  open 
harmony  with  scientific  methods  of  thought.  It  means 
that  the  most  vital  test  of  orthodoxy,  the  accepted  test, 
will  be  where  Christ  himself  placed  it — that  its  criterion 
and  credential  shall  be  furnished  in  character,  in  the 
sanity  of  ethical  and  intellectual  life  rather  than  in  a 
forced  subscription  to  technical  dogma.  It  means  that 
in  the  organic  life  of  the  Church  spiritual  liberty  and 
intellectual  freedom  shall  be  permitted  unmolested  to 
walk  hand  in  hand  with  each  other.  It  means  for  the 
Church  of  the  future  a  richer  heritage  of  thought  and 


MODERN  PROPHETS  a83 

a  more  perfect  and  luminous  spirituality  than  any  which 
the  sons  of  God  have  yet  known. 

Sure  as  Thy  truth  shall  last, 

To  Zion  shall  be  given 
The  brightest  glories  earth  can  yield, 

And  brighter  bliss  of  heaven. 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS 


285 


"For  lo,  the  days  are  hastening  on, 

By  prophet  bards  foretold, 
When  with  the  ever-circling  years 

Comes  round  the  age  of  gold; 
When  peace  shall  over  all  the  earth 

Its  ancient  splendors  fling, 
And  the  whole  world  give  back  the  song 

Which  now  the  angels  sing." 

"This  fine  old  world  of  ours  is  but  a  child, 
Still  in  its  go-cart." 

. .  .  through  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs, 
And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widened  with  the  process  of  the  suns. 

— Tennyson. 

The  tendency  of  the  long  past  has  been  toward  diversity,  that  of  the 
longer  future  will  be  toward  oneness.  .  .  .  Thus  conditions  which  for 
thousands  of  years  tended  to  diversity  have  now  been  superseded  by 
conditions  which  tend  to  oneness.  It  should  be  observed,  further,  that 
the  new  movement  is  much  more  rapid  than  the  old  one.  Many  of  the 
differences  which  separate  men  required  centuries  for  their  perceptible 
development.  But  now  every  year  marks  long  strides  in  the  tendency 
to  subordinate  differences,  to  emphasize  resemblances,  to  sink  the  small 
in  the  great,  and  to  merge  the  many  in  the  one.  . .  .  The  race  has  now  crossed 
the  great  divide  of  human  history,  and  numberless  streams  of  tendency 
are  all  unconsciously  moving  toward  the  oneness  of  the  great  future. 
— Dr.  Josiah  Strong. 

High  above  our  confusion  and  unrest,  yet  near  to  each  human  heart 
and  willing  to  enter  in,  stands  He  to  whom  the  thought  and  feeling  of 
mankind  turns  with  the  same  instinctive  fidelity  with  which  the  needle 
seeks  the  pole — the  changeless  Christ.  Restate  our  doctrines  as  we 
may,  reconstruct  our  theologies  as  we  will,  this  age,  like  every  age,  be- 
holds in  him  the  Way  to  God,  the  Truth  of  God,  the  Life  of  God  lived 
out  among  men;  this  age,  like  every  age,  has  heard  and  responded  to  his 
call,  "Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy-laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest";  this  age,  like  every  age,  finds  access  to  the  Father  through 
the  Son.  These  things  no  criticism  can  shake,  these  certainties  no  phil- 
osophy disprove,  these  facts  no  science  dissolve  away.  He  is  the  religion 
which  he  taught,  and  while  the  race  of  man  endures  men  will  turn  to  the 
crucified  Son  of  man,  not  with  a  grudging  "Thou  hast  conquered,  O 
Galilean!"  but  with  the  joyful,  grateful  cry,  "My  Lord,  and  my  God!" 
— Dr.  Warschauer. 


286 


CHAPTER  XV 
PROPHETIC  VISTAS 

Dr.  D.  S.  Cairns,  in  his  Christianity  in  the  Modern 
World,  in  the  line  of  a  very  able  discussion  says:  "The 
crying  need  of  our  own  age  in  the  industrial  sphere  is 
the  deepening  and  diffusion  of  the  sense  of  the  Common 
Good."  This  sentence  holds  in  itself  a  whole  gospel 
of  industrial  reconstruction,  of  social  regeneration.  The 
supreme  task  of  a  Christian  civilization  is  to  secure  the 
enthronement  in  human  thought  of  the  spirit  of  brother- 
hood rather  than  of  dissension,  of  the  cooperative  rather 
than  the  competitive  motive. 

"The  new  social  order  demands  a  new  type  of  man. 
The  old  motives  of  personal  gain  must  give  place  to 
motives  of  collective  enrichment.  The  ambition  to  get 
on  must  be  lost  in  the  nobler  ideal  to  help  on.  Instead 
of  competition  there  must  be  cooperation.  Private  ad- 
vancement is  to  have  as  its  substitute  the  desire  to 
render  public  service.  In  the  coming  time  the  individual 
will  realize  collective  responsibility  and  will  bear  his 
part  of  the  obligation  of  contributing  of  his  strength  to 
the  support  of  the  weak."1  This  ideal  is  one  obviously 
far  from  present  realization.  The  industrial  world  to-day 
is  divided  into  hostile  camps,  and  is  conducted  under 
policies  which  develop  much  class  hatred.  So  of  the 
social  world.     Between  its  various  classes  there  yawn 

1  J.  C.  Carlile. 

287 


288      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

at  present  unbridged  chasms  of  distinction  and  of  caste. 

But  in  the  light  of  all  history  nothing  can  be  clearer 
than  that  the  wounds  of  society  cannot  be  healed,  that 
the  interests  of  humanity  can  never  be  best  served,  by 
the  continuance  of  the  warring  industrial  and  social 
policies  which  now  so  largely  prevail.  These  policies 
must  be  uprooted  and  displaced  before  any  vision  of 
millennial  peace  and  prosperity  can  have  realization. 

Do  existing  facts  give  any  assurance  of  the  new  Chris- 
tian age,  the  glory  of  which  has  filled  the  vision  of  our 
prophets?  Or  is  the  vision  itself  only  an  iridescent  and 
deceitful  dream?  We  must  not  be  misled  by  the  rhetoric 
of  a  groundless  optimism.  The  problems  of  humanity 
are  enormous,  pressing,  and  grave  beyond  measurement. 
The  great  problems  which  confront  our  present-day 
Christianity  are  not  simply  those  which  arise  from  the 
social,  industrial,  and  civic  conditions  of  civilization. 
These  in  themselves  are  both  momentous  and  baffling. 
But  the  supreme  problems  of  the  present  day  are  world- 
problems,  and  these  in  the  very  near  future  will  accent- 
uate themselves  in  a  measure  that  could  not  have  been 
dreamed  of  even  as  late  as  the  closing  years  of  the  last 
century. 

The  peoples  of  the  Orient,  which  to  Western  civiliza- 
tions, until  very  recently,  have  seemed  as  in  a  sleep, 
are  now  fully  awaking.  Their  seonic  sleep  is  broken. 
Their  waking  is  ominous  for  all  mankind.  They  are 
now  in  social  and  political  ferment.  Japan  has  already 
asserted  herself  as  one  of  the  most  alert,  inventive,  and 
progressive  forces  in  a  world-civilization.  China  is 
breaking  with  all  the  precedents  of  her  immovable  past. 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  289 

For  the  shaping  of  her  new  ideals  she  is  inviting  the 
constructive  aid  of  Western  Christian  education,  science, 
and  government.  What  is  true  of  China  is  but  typical 
of  what  is  going  on  among  the  vast  populations  of  the 
East.  The  interests  of  merchandise  and  the  swiftness 
and  perfection  of  modern  transportation  are  binding  us 
in  ever-closer  relations  to  all  these  peoples.  Only  a 
little  time  since,  and  the  world's  foremost  statesmen 
were  declaring  that  the  Orient  and  the  Occident  were 
separated  from  each  other  by  chasms  which  could  never 
be  bridged.  The  chasms  have  already  been  bridged. 
The  interests  of  Orient  and  Occident  are  vitally  and 
increasingly  intermingling.  They  can  never  more  be  put 
asunder. 

The  Western  civilizations  have  undertaken  to  erect 
some  fences  against  the  invasion  of  Oriental  popula- 
tions. There  may  be  both  a  measure  of  wisdom  and 
justification  in  such  attempts.  But  it  is  not  necessary 
to  characterize  their  ultimate  futility.  The  Oriental 
peoples  will  touch  us  to  the  vitals.  They  will  adopt 
both  our  learning  and  our  methods.  They  will  become 
our  competitors,  perhaps  overwhelmingly  so,  in  the 
mercantile  and  industrial  markets  of  the  world.  As  by 
an  unalterable  edict  of  Almightiness,  the  East  and  the 
West  must  henceforth  live  together  either  in  a  spirit 
of  large  and  cooperative  service  for  mankind,  or  else 
in  a  spirit  of  mutual  and  racial  hostility  destructive  of 
the  world's  peace,  prosperity,  and  righteousness,  an  atti- 
tude which  would  mean  an  indefinite  postponement  of 
all  the  brighter  hopes  of  humanity.     Which  shall  it  be? 

But  to  get  Christianly  closer  to  the  whole  question, 


29o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

the  new  relations  call  for  an  entire  transformation  of 
our  racial  feelings.  The  spirit  of  race-alienations,  of 
caste-feeling  and  separation,  has  been  one  of  the  things 
most  rife  in  human  history.  If  we  are  to  deal  with  this 
historic  situation  in  a  sense  that  shall  be  fully  Christian, 
then  these  racial  lines  of  separation  must  be  demolished. 
In  Saint  Paul's  ideal  Christian  community  he  saw  Greek 
and  Jew,  Barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  and  free  blended 
in  the  dignities  and  fellowships  of  a  common  citizenship. 
If  Saint  Paul  could  so  far  forget  his  national  and  in- 
herited prejudices  as  to  indorse  this  view  of  a  Christian 
democracy,  then  his  vision  for  us  is  one  for  immensely 
larger  application.  Our  contacts  must  be  with  the 
entire  geographical  world,  and  with  all  of  its  diverse 
races.  But  if  all  these  peoples  are  the  children  of  God, 
all  the  subjects  of  a  divine  redemption  in  Jesus  Christ, 
then  we  must  relate  ourselves  to  them  all  in  the  spirit 
of  the  common  kinship  of  God's  family.  Are  we,  the 
heirs  of  a  Christian  civilization,  the  bearers  of  the  Chris- 
tian name,  large  enough,  Christlike  enough,  to  enter 
loyally  into  these  constructions? 

In  the  foregoing  reflections,  there  has  been  at  least 
suggested  something  of  the  largeness  and  complexity 
of  world-problems,  problems  not  merely  impending,  but 
before  which  the  Christian  world  even  now  stands  face 
to  face.  Is  Christianity  itself  large  enough,  divine 
enough,  to  deal  successfully,  adequately  with  the  incom- 
prehensible difficulties  of  these  world-conditions?  What- 
ever answer  such  a  question  may  elicit,  it  is  not  amiss 
to  take  a  passing  refuge  in  a  mere  negative  reflection. 
Civilization    is    old    enough    to    have    tried    out    many 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  291 

experiments.  It  has  always  been  burdened  with  ills, 
crippled  by  limitations,  and  has  incurred  many  dis- 
astrous failures.  In  all  its  history  there  has  never 
been  wanting  a  philosophy,  a  theory  of  government, 
or  some  kind  of  panacea  which  has  been  offered  as  a 
cure-all  for  its  ills. 

All  experiments  with  such  remedies  have  been  tried, 
and  have  failed.  None  of  them,  nor  all  of  them  to- 
gether, have  proven  equal  to  producing  an  ideal  civiliza- 
tion. Christianity,  upon  the  other  hand,  wherever  tried, 
has  never  failed.  It  has  been  tested  by  innumerable 
individuals,  and  has  been  proven  fully  equal  to  their 
deepest  moral  and  spiritual  needs,  both  in  the  toils  of 
life  and  in  the  pains  of  death.  It  has  been  largely  tested 
in  many  provinces  of  human  society,  and  always  only 
with  exalting  and  ennobling  results  yielded  in  just  the 
measure  in  which  its  conditions  have  been  fairly  tried. 
In  all  the  world  to-day  there  is  no  sane  adherent  of 
Christianity  who  does  not  believe  in  its  entire  sufficiency, 
if  its  principles  may  be  fairly  accepted,  to  meet  the 
social  and  moral  needs  of  all  mankind.  It  would  seem, 
then,  just  now,  while  the  world,  like  a  ship  preciously 
freighted  and  full-sailed,  is  crowding  toward  some  new 
coast,  that  Christianity  is  the  only  pilot  which  may 
be  confidently  trusted  to  take  charge  of  its  destiny. 

Casting  our  eyes  about  the  horizon  what  signs  may 
we  discern  of  the  promise  and  progress  of  Christian 
supremacy? 

I 

The  world  of  capital  carries  in  itself  both  the  most 
promising   and  resisting   conditions   of  moral   progress. 


292      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

In  so  far  as  this  world  is  governed  by  a  selfish  and  un- 
scrupulous spirit,  it  is  a  world  most  discouraging  to 
Christian  hopes,  most  heartless  in  its  injustices,  most 
despotic  in  its  power  for  evil.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  does  not  admit  of  denial  that  the  capitalistic  world 
of  the  present  is  increasingly  impelled  by  a  spirit  of 
philanthropy.  I  do  not  undertake  here  to  discuss  pro 
or  con  the  moral  quality  of  the  processes  by  which  given 
capitalists  may  have  acquired  their  phenomenal  fortunes. 
Not  that  this  question  is  not  in  itself  one  of  very  in- 
trinsic importance.  My  purpose  now,  however,  is  simply 
and  briefly  to  review  some  general  features  in  the  world 
of  present-day  philanthropy. 

And,  first,  it  may  be  truthfully  said,  that  in  the  matter 
of  money  for  humane  causes,  the  entire  past  has  never 
produced  a  period  which  for  magnificent  giving  has 
anywhere  nearly  approached  the  present  time.  In  the 
year  last  closed,  19 13,  the  aggregate  large  gifts  by  cit- 
izens of  the  United  States  amounted  to  more  than  $302,- 
000,000.  In  this  splendid  aggregate  no  gift  for  less  than 
$10,000  is  included.  If  we  could  command  all  the  gifts 
under  sums  of  $10,000  each,  these  would  also  make  a 
noble  aggregate.  Last  year  there  was  given  outright  to 
American  colleges  alone  the  sum  of  $32,550,000.  It  is 
of  interest  to  note  that  throughout  the  country  there  are 
not  less  than  5,397  institutions  of  a  purely  benevolent 
character,  representing  combined  costs  in  property  and 
endowments  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars.  These 
institutions  are  devoted  to  the  care  of  unfortunate  and 
orphaned  children,  of  indigent  adults,  of  the  blind  and 
deaf,  and  for  purposes  of  hospitals  and  dispensaries. 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  293 

We  can  little  measure  the  significance  of  amounts 
running  up  into  these  high  figures.  They  tell  an  eloquent 
story.  They  stand  not  only  for  an  unmeasured  amount 
of  good,  of  humane  service  achieved,  but  they  give 
evidence  of  a  growing  conviction  among  men  favored 
with  large  capital  of  personal  responsibility  for  its  moral 
uses.  More  than  this,  they  tell  the  story  of  a  genuine 
pleasure  often  experienced  by  men  of  wealth  in  bestow- 
ing benefactions  that  meet  public  needs.  For  our  present 
purpose  it  matters  little  who  the  particular  donors  may 
be.  The  consecration  of  so  large  sums  of  private  money 
to  public  and  philanthropic  uses  represents  a  pervasive 
and  growing  disposition  on  the  part  of  capital  to  make 
itself  a  servant  of  the  common  good.  So  far  as  capital 
is  concerned,  this  example  goes  far  toward  lifting  the 
donor  into  a  special  moral  class.  At  any  rate,  it  secures 
for  him  an  approvable  distinction  as  compared  with 
the  capitalist  who  selfishly  gathers,  hoards,  and  invests 
his  wealth  without  reference  to  the  claims  upon  him 
of  humanity. 

The  feature  of  chief  significance  is  that  the  call  for 
service,  a  Christian  call,  which  is  so  distinctively  and 
increasingly  voiced  in  this  age,  is  being  heard  and  heeded 
at  the  seats  of  capital.  This  is  of  great  import.  This 
is  a  capitalistic  age.  Capital  is  a  chief  power  in  all 
the  great  enterprises.  It  builds  our  cities,  our  railroads, 
our  steamships,  and  supports  all  productive  industries. 
Its  investments  are  making  all  natural  forces  tributary 
to  our  material  civilization,  harnessing  the  very  Niagaras 
for  its  uses.  It  is  but  little  wonder  that  the  age  has 
been    drunken   with   the   very   power   of   capital.     But 


294      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

the  wielders  of  this  great  power  must  not  be  drunken 
men.  They  of  all  men  need  to  be  men  of  sobriety,  of 
self-control,  of  conscientiousness,  fused  through  and 
through  with  a  sense  of  high  responsibility.  They 
need  to  be  men  of  vision,  sun-crowned  men. 

Just  recognition  should  be  gratefully  given  for  such 
measure  of  capital  as  has  been  consecrated  to  the  com- 
mon good.  The  story  of  such  consecration  furnishes 
one  of  the  most  inspiring  chapters  in  the  moral  history 
of  the  race.  But  thus  far  only  the  outer  fringes  on  the 
royal  robe  of  capital  have  been  touched  for  distinctively 
benevolent  and  moral  ends.  In  overwhelming  propor- 
tion capital  has  thus  far  sought  its  investment  in  ma- 
terial and  selfish  schemes.  I  seek  neither  to  displace 
nor  to  underestimate  both  the  legitimacy  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  large  investments  of  capital  in  purely  business 
enterprises.  Such  enterprises  rightfully  absorb  the  great 
body  of  capitalistic  investments.  Business  in  itself  may 
be  just  as  legitimate,  just  as  much  a  divine  calling,  as 
the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  Indeed,  what  we  need  to 
remember,  what  the  business  man  may  not  forget,  is 
that  the  business  man  is  just  as  morally  responsible  for 
the  use  of  his  powers  as  is  the  minister  of  the  gospel. 
No  implication  is  to  be  made  against  either  the  invest- 
ment of  human  skill  and  energy  or  of  capital  in  legit- 
imate business.  But  investments  are  made  for  profits. 
And  when  profits  exceed  all  demands  of  private  business, 
and  of  private  needs,  then  in  such  surplus  there  is  a 
fund  which  should  be  sacredly  devoted  to  moral  and 
philanthropic  purposes. 

There  is  a  voice  in  the  age,  a  spirit  stirring  its  very 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  295 

atmospheres,  which  is  calling  upon  capital  in  general  to 
lift  its  motives  to  higher  levels,  to  make  great  new  moral 
departures.  The  world  needs  a  generation  of  capitalists 
who  will  be  dominated  by  the  conviction  that  they  are 
simply  stewards  for  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
that  it  is  their  chief  obligation  to  bring  their  gains  as 
endowments  for  the  moral  uses  of  this  kingdom.  It 
is  only  under  such  a  motive  that  wealth  can  come  to  its 
real  nobility. 

As  much  as  we  may  admire  the  skill  and  power  of 
one  who  forces  nature  to  lay  its  treasures  in  his  hand, 
we  can  see  nothing  admirable  in  the  selfish  and  sordid 
uses  by  this  same  man  of  such  treasures.  The  capital- 
istic motive  which  prompts  to  the  gaining  of  wealth 
only  that  it  may  increase  the  personal  power  of  its  pos- 
sessor, only  that  it  may  feed  his  greeds,  gratify  his  pride, 
minister  to  his  luxuries,  and  swell  his  selfish  aggrandize- 
ment is  not  admirable.  On  a  just  moral  scale  there  are 
few  beings  less  approvable,  though  he  clothe  himself 
in  purple  and  fine  linen  and  fare  sumptuously  every 
day,  than  the  man  who  is  the  selfish  and  sordid  mo- 
nopolizer of  wealth.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no 
nobler  type  of  man  than  he  who,  having  wealth,  has 
acquired  both  the  art  and  the  delight  of  so  using  it  as 
to  make  it  in  the  highest  sense  a  ministry  of  moral 
service. 

And  why  should  not  wealth  find  its  highest  satisfac- 
tions in  responding  to  the  bugle  call  of  the  age  for  such 
moral  service?  By  the  courtesy  of  Professor  George  A. 
Coe,  of  Union  Theological  Seminary,  I  am  in  possession 
of  the  following  typical  and  highly  suggestive  facts.    I 


206      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

present  these  facts  in  Professor  Coe's  own  language  as 
follows : 

In  the  spring  of  191 1  Norman  Thomas,  of  our  graduating  class,  was 
elected  by  the  faculty  to  our  traveling  Fellowship,  which  provides  for 
two  years  of  foreign  study.  The  Fellowship  is  awarded  each  year  to 
the  man  who  has  stood  highest  in  the  graduating  class  during  his  whole 
three  years'  course.  Mr.  Thomas  was  easily  first.  He  is  indeed  a  man 
of  extraordinary  ability,  such  ability  as  would  bring  him  success,  say, 
in  a  professorship.  But  he  declined  the  Fellowship  on  the  ground  that 
he  desired  to  engage  in  work  among  the  Italian  immigrants  in  New  York 
city.  He  is  now  a  supervisor  of  the  Italian  churches  on  the  East  Side 
for  the  Presbyterian  Home  Mission  Board. 

In  19 1 2  we  elected  similarly  Mr.  Kenneth  Miller;  but  he  declined  the 
Fellowship  on  the  ground  that  he  desired  to  enter  the  work  among  the 
immigrants  in  this  country.  We  then  turned  to  the  next  man  in  the 
class  of  19 1 2,  Mr.  Joel  Hay  den.  After  some  consideration,  Mr.  Hay  den 
also  declined,  and  on  the  same  ground.  Thereupon,  the  Presbyterian 
Home  Missionary  Society  sent  both  these  men  abroad  for  one  year  to 
study  certain  of  the  European  peoples,  from  whom  immigrants  are  now 
coming.  Miller  worked  in  Bohemia,  and  Hayden  worked  in  Poland. 
After  a  year  both  of  them  could  speak  and  preach  in  the  language  of 
the  country.  Miller  is  now  in  New  York  city,  in  the  employ  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Home  Mission  Board,  as  an  assistant  in  the  Bohemian  work; 
and  Hayden  is  in  Baltimore  in  similar  work  among  the  Poles. 

A  further  set  of  facts  that  will  interest  you  concerns  the  enthusiasm 
for  foreign  missions  that  now  prevails  among  our  students,  and  has  pre- 
vailed, I  think,  for  years.  In  one  of  our  recent  years,  I  think  it  was  191 1, 
twenty-five  per  cent  of  a  large  graduating  class  was  already  pledged 
for  foreign  mission  work  before  graduation  day  came.  Every  year  we 
send  a  large  delegation,  generally  of  strong  men,  into  mission  work.  In 
fact,  I  am  not  seldom  embarrassed  in  my  efforts  to  get  men  into  religious 
education  work  in  this  country  by  discovering  that  the  strong  man  upon 
whom  I  have  fixed  my  mind  had  decided  to  go  into  the  foreign  field.  An 
amusing  evidence  of  this  interest  occurred  last  year.  Some  of  the  stu- 
dents complained  that  the  foreign  work  was  talked  about  so  much  that 
the  home  work  didn't  get  its  due! 

A  still  further  item  of  the  same  kind  concerns  the  rural  work.  Several 
of  our  men — I  should  say  half  a  dozen — have  been  engaged  already  in 
the  rural  survey  work  during  vacation.  Some  of  them  have  now  entered 
permanently  upon  one  or  another  form  of  rural  work  as  a  life  calling; 
and  there  is  so  much  interest  in  this  problem  that  there  is  every  reason 
to  expect  that  a  good  many  of  our  men  will  tackle  this,  which  is  perhaps 
the  hardest  of  all  our  problems. 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  297 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing,  there  has  come  to  my 
attention  almost  at  the  time  of  this  writing,  the  case 
of  a  young  preacher,  himself  a  theological  graduate, 
highly  cultured,  able,  exceptionally  attractive  in  his 
personality,  who  asks  of  his  superintendent  that  he  may 
be  sent  to  one  of  the  weakest  mission  churches  in  New 
York  city. 

What  do  these  instances  indicate?  This:  these  young 
men  have  been  dwelling  in  sensitive  moral  atmospheres. 
They  have  caught  a  vision  of  the  age.  They  have  heard 
Christ's  call  to  service.  Their  hearts  have  already  been 
touched  with  the  joy  of  sacrifice.  In  the  splendid  light 
of  their  inspirations  they  have  been  able  to  translate 
into  their  own  convictions,  choices,  and  affections  the 
seemingly  most  difficult  tasks,  as  at  once  the  most  divine, 
the  most  attractive,  and  the  most  rewarding. 

These  young  men  are  disciples  from  the  schools  of 
our  modern  prophets.  They  are  the  knightly  spirits  of 
a  new  age.  In  character,  in  culture,  in  social  attractive- 
ness they  are  the  peers  of  the  most  favored  sons  of  wealth. 
Their  moral  purposes  and  consecrations  are  inspired  by 
the  loftiest  motives.  Their  moral  insight  has  not  mis- 
led them.  They  are  making  no  mistake  in  their  choices. 
Providence  is  thrusting  them  into  the  vanguard  of  great 
moral  movements.  Is  there  any  reason  why  the  ranks 
of  wealth  should  not  hear  the  same  call  of  the  age,  be 
stirred  by  the  same  moral  enthusiasms,  and  bring  their 
tremendous  reenforcements  to  the  same  work?  The  man 
of  wealth  holds  in  his  hands  great  potentialities  of  ser- 
vice. It  were  for  such  a  man  a  tragic  missing  of  the 
highest  nobility  and  joy  of  life  if  he  were  so  obsessed 


298      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

by  the  demon  of  greed,  avarice,  and  selfishness  as  to 
be  shut  away  from  fellowship  with  the  knightly  guild 
of  men  who  have  learned  that  life's  divinest  rewards 
rest  alone  with  those  who  have  most  entered  the  secret 
of  Christlike  service. 

The  ideal  minister  must  be  socially  refined,  mentally 
cultured,  spiritually  inspirational,  but  he  is  expected  by 
all,  and  justly  so,  to  be  a  ministering  servant  to  the 
needs  of  the  humblest  and  the  poorest  in  his  parish. 
The  ideal  physician  must  be  learned  and  skilled  in  his 
profession,  yet  it  is  one  of  the  very  ideals  of  his  pro- 
fession that  he  must  as  fully  and  as  conscientiously 
devote  his  skill  to  the  care  of  the  sick  in  the  homes  of 
the  poor,  or  even  among  convicts  in  prison,  as  in  the 
homes  of  privilege.  The  ideal  teacher  must  be  both 
learned,  skillful  and  gifted,  yet  the  teacher  must  give 
of  his  or  her  best  for  the  service  of  all.  The  teacher 
who  would  slight  or  neglect  the  most  mentally  backward 
or  stupidest  child  in  the  school  would  be  justly  counted 
unworthy  a  place  in  the  teaching  profession.  These  are 
a  few  illustrations  of  callings,  and  many  others  could 
be  added,  which  in  themselves  demand  the  highest  type 
of  character,  yet  the  incumbents  of  which  are  expected 
to  give  themselves  to  a  life  of  altruistic  service. 

Why  should  not  the  capitalist  who  employs  a  thousand 
men  consider  these  as  his  providential  opportunity,  a 
special  call  to  him  for  Christlike  service?  Is  there  any 
reason  why  a  man  wielding  the  power  of  wealth  should 
feel  free  to  excuse  himself  from  rendering  to  his  age  the 
full  moral  service  implicit  in  that  wealth?  Measured  in 
the  clear  light  of  most  sane  and  sensitive  judgment, 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  299 

the  rich  man  who  fails  to  render  such  service,  by  the 
very  fact  of  such  failure  assigns  himself  a  most  un- 
enviable moral  rank.  The  darkness  of  his  failure  is  in 
inverse  ratio  to  the  greatness  of  his  neglected  oppor- 
tunity. Is  there  any  reason  why,  because  a  man  is 
wealthy,  he  should  excuse  himself  from  the  fellowship 
of  consecrations  demanded  by  the  highest  social  and 
moral  enthusiasms  of  the  age?  Too  many  rich  men 
have  tried  to  live  selfishly,  only  to  discover  too  late  that 
their  selfishness  has  been  utterly  unrewarding.  Too 
many  such  have  given  themselves  to  the  revel  of  luxury, 
only  to  awaken  in  paralysis  and  helplessness  to  the  dis- 
covery that  the  bread  and  wine  of  their  pleasure  have 
turned  to  ashes  and  bitterness.  The  man  of  utterly 
selfish  wealth,  though  he  be  not  physically  intemperate, 
is  likely  to  awaken  to  the  fact  that  the  dream  of  his 
avarice  has  brought  him  no  better  reward  than  the 
labors  of  Sisyphus. 

Dickens's  Christmas  story  of  Scrooge  is  psychologically 
true  to  life.  He  began  early  to  worship  a  golden  idol. 
The  noble  aspirations  of  his  youth  fell  off  one  by  one. 
until  the  master-passion,  gain,  had  engrossed  him.  Into 
his  features  were  set  hard  and  rigid  lines,  and  upon  his 
face  grew  the  signs  of  care  and  avarice.  He  lived  to  a 
hard,  grasping,  and  merciless  old  age.  He  was  rich. 
His  "name  was  good  upon  'change  for  anything  he  chose 
to  put  his  hand  to."  But  he  was  oblivious  both  of  the 
joys  and  sorrows  of  others.  For  him  the  cheery  season 
of  Christmas  had  no  charm.  He  considered  that  for 
his  clerk  to  take  a  Christmas  holiday  was  like  "pick- 
ing a  man's  pocket  every  twenty-fifth  of  December." 


3oo      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

"If  I  could  work  my  will,"  he  said,  indignantly,  "every 
idiot  who  goes  about  with  'Merry  Christmas'  on  his 
lips  should  be  boiled  with  his  own  pudding,  and  buried 
with  a  stake  of  holly  through  his  heart.     He  should." 

His  old  age  was  loveless,  lonely,  and  joyless.  He  was 
a  miser,  neither  giving  to  the  world,  nor  receiving  from 
it,  any  ministry  of  blessedness.  There  is  many  a  man, 
rich  and  loveless,  who  can  never  be  called  back  from 
the  bondage  of  his  greed  unless  by  some  ghostly  miracle, 
as  in  the  case  of  Scrooge. 

This  subject  cannot  be  justly  discussed  without  large 
emphasis  of  the  many  princely  examples  which  the  age 
furnishes  of  chivalrous  use  of  wealth.  The  consecration 
of  wealth  to  the  common  good  will  be  one  of  the  great 
passions  begotten  by  the  new  age.  The  good  of,  the 
love  of,  the  joy  of  giving  private  wealth  for  philan- 
thropic ends  will  in  increasing  measure  substitute  and 
exorcise  grosser  and  selfish  motives  in  the  uses  of  cap- 
ital. Happily  for  the  age,  happily  for  the  auspices  of 
the  Kingdom,  signs  multiply  that  a  new  moral  knight- 
hood is  being  increasingly  recruited  from  the  sons  of 
wealth.  My  faith  is  that  one  of  the  chief  distinguishing 
marks  of  the  twentieth  century  will  be  in  the  new  and 
vast  consecrations  of  wealth  for  the  reenforcements  of 
Christ's  kingdom.  A  new  spirit  is  coming  into  the 
world's  thinking,  a  new  light  is  resting  upon  human 
needs  and  obligations,  new  ideals  are  making  resistless 
appeal  to  the  rich  and  strong  for  service.  In  response 
to  the  new  spirit,  the  new  light,  the  new  ideals,  wealth 
will  find  its  sphere  of  service  and  of  satisfaction  as  never 
before. 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  301 

The  prophecy  has  gone  forth,  the  nurture  is  in  the 
atmosphere,  and  the  signs  are  multiplying  that  already 
we  have  entered  upon  an  age  which  is  to  be  morally 
resplendent,  and  not  among  the  least  of  forces  con- 
tributing to  its  glory  will  be  the  ministry  of  consecrated 

wealth. 

II 

The  deeper  moral  significance  of  the  labor  movement 
has  been  much  obscured  by  objectionable  features  which 
have  been  superficial  to  the  movement  itself.  Labor  has 
fundamentally  organized  itself  for  the  purpose,  first,  of 
protection  against  the  unjust  encroachments  of  selfish 
capital,  and,  second,  for  the  purpose  of  mutual  aid  and 
benevolence  among  its  own  members.  Nothing  could 
be  more  legitimate,  nothing  more  approvable  in  itself, 
than  each  of  these  purposes.  Labor  has  suffered  from 
the  frequent  misfortune  of  unworthy  leadership.  It  has 
often  lacked  in  discernment  of  the  better  courses  to  be 
pursued.  Its  history  has  been  too  often  characterized 
by  sporadical  outbreaks  of  mob  rule  and  violence  in 
which  outlawry  and  the  spirit  of  ruthless  assassination 
have  played  a  conspicuous  role. 

These  occasional  and  quite  exceptional  phenomena  have 
created  in  the  thoughtful  public  mind  a  wide  prejudice 
against  the  spirit  of  organized  labor.  By  so  much 
labor  has  suffered  a  serious  injustice  at  the  hands  of 
its  own  representatives.  If,  however,  we  inquire  more 
closely  into  underlying  causes,  it  must  appear  that  labor 
cannot  be  justly  charged  with  greater  criminality  than 
capital  itself.  It  is  altogether  probable  that  if  capital 
had   always   dealt   equitably,    there   would   never   have 


3o2      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

arisen  the  labor  organization.     There  would  have  been 
no  necessity  for  it. 

That  capital  and  labor  to-day  are  pitted  against  each 
other  in  alien  camps  is  not  without  deep  causes.  The 
recriminations  of  labor  against  capital,  however  bitter, 
are,  in  the  last  analysis,  only  the  practices  by  labor  of 
lessons  taught  by  capital  itself.  Capital  has  shown 
itself  hard,  grasping,  conscienceless,  despotic.  Labor, 
helpless  in  its  presence,  has  been  forced  in  innumerable 
instances  to  the  wall.  Capital  has  too  often  exacted 
from  the  weak  the  largest  service  for  the  smallest  wage. 
Without  regard  to  brotherhood,  rights,  the  comforts,  the 
health,  or  even  the  lives  of  workers,  capital  has  often 
ground  the  poor  under  the  heel  of  merciless  power. 
It  is  in  a  spirit  thus  begotten  that  labor  has  turned  upon 
capital.  It  is  simply,  in  its  bad  moods,  striking  as  it 
has  itself  been  struck.  In  the  above  paragraph  I  am 
speaking  especially  of  the  demerits  of  capital.  But 
labor  has  too  often  earned  for  itself  the  severest  censure. 
When  well  paid  and  well  treated  it  has  often  given  slip- 
shod work,  careless  and  unprofitable  service,  and  has 
done  the  least  work  possible  for  the  largest  wages  that 
could  be  gotten.  Labor,  in  the  highest  interests  of 
the  worker,  should  be  performed  in  a  loyal  spirit.  A 
man's  sphere  of  labor  is  his  training  school  of  character. 
The  man  who  works  in  the  spirit  of  a  time  server,  who 
seeks  only  the  day's  wage  regardless  as  to  whether  he 
has  rendered  an  equivalent  value,  is  living  the  life  of 
a  cheat,  is  so  lending  himself  to  processes  of  essential 
dishonesty  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  him  under  such 
motives   to   develop   an   intrinsically   noble   and   trust- 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  303 

worthy  character.  Labor,  however  humble  in  itself,  if 
loyally  and  dutifully  performed,  is  a  service  in  the  in- 
terests of  righteousness. 

In  the  moral  merits  of  the  conflict  capital  has  no 
advantage  over  labor.  Capital  is  better  liveried,  better 
fed,  is  more  self-sufficient,  and  wears  externally  a  better 
polish;  but  its  spirit  has  been  just  as  bitter  and  relent- 
less as  that  of  labor.  On  the  other  hand,  the  moral 
advantages,  as  inhering  in  the  causes  of  the  conflict, 
are  with  labor.  Capital  for  the  most  part  has  waged 
a  selfish  warfare.  Labor  may  have  been  selfish,  but, 
on  the  whole,  it  has  fought  for  its  rights.  In  any  event, 
mingled  with  its  selfishness  has  been  a  large  spirit  of 
altruism.  Its  scheme,  however  imperfectly  realized, 
and  however  limited  of  application,  has  been  one  of 
a  labor  brotherhood,  and  its  spirit  one  of  mutual  help- 
fulness. 

Organized  labor  has  never  en  masse  committed  itself 
to  any  atheistic  policy.  While  it  has  been  distrustful 
of  the  Church  because  of  the  judgment,  whether  true 
or  false,  that  the  Church  is  too  much  dominated  by 
capitalistic  influence,  it  has,  as  a  rule,  borne  itself  in 
reverential  attitude  toward  Jesus  Christ.  Organized  labor 
fails  of  many  things  greatly  to  be  desired,  but  at  its 
heart  it  carries  ideals  which  illuminated  and  widened 
would  mark  it  as  having  close  kinship  with  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  In  a  day  of  more  equitable  industrial  con- 
ditions, of  more  pronounced  brotherhood,  a  day  sure 
to  come,  the  laboring  world  will  be  subjects  of  that 
kingdom  whose  Lord  was  once  the  Carpenter  of  Naza- 
reth. 


3o4      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

III 

A  prophetic  word,  a  word  which  carries  in  itself  great 
promise  and  potency  for  the  future,  is  "cooperation." 
Capitalism,  at  least  capitalism  in  its  present  exaggerated 
form,  is  but  a  passing  phase  in  civilization.  There  are 
most  potent  reasons  why  it  should  be  doomed.  In  its 
present  concentrated  form,  and  with  its  accelerating 
aggressiveness,  it  stands  as  a  menace  to  the  very  life 
of  the  republic.  With  mailed  front,  and  with  a  rapacity 
that  brooks  no  checks,  its  recent  leading  has  been  straight 
in  the  direction  of  plutocracy.  With  new  shibboleths 
and  under  new  forms  it  threatens  the  displacement  of 
democratic  equality  by  a  capitalistic  feudalism. 

The  proposition  comes  too  late  in  history  for  such  a 
regression  in  civilization.  Plutocracy,  when  reduced  to 
its  last  term,  is  a  foe  to  human  liberty,  inimical  to  democ- 
racy, and  can  be  accorded  no  place  under  the  standards 
of  highest  Christian  enlightenment.  Its  aggressions  have 
awakened  the  deepest  animosities  of  the  present  age. 
Only  the  blind  can  fail  to  see  this.  The  greatest  menace 
of  our  present  civilization  is  that  which  arises  from 
the  warfare  between  the  oligarchy  of  wealth  and  the 
discontented  democracy  of  production.  This  is  a  war- 
fare which,  if  its  causes  are  not  removed,  threatens  the 
very  upheaval  of  society,  only  on  a  more  terrific  and 
bloody  scale,  as  in  the  French  Revolution. 

In  these  days  the  feeling  is  rapidly  growing  that  the 
present  order  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  a  finality.  The 
conviction  is  gaining  with  capitalists,  as  well  as  with 
all  others,  that  in  the  very  fundamental  conditions  of 
business   there   should  be   provision,    and   under   limits 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  305 

which  cannot  be  finally  violated  by  either  capitalistic 
or  laboristic  aggression,  for  a  more  equitable  distribu- 
tion of  opportunities  among  men.  In  the  present  situa- 
tion both  capital  and  organized  labor  are  resting  in  false, 
unjust,  and  most  injurious  assumptions.  Capital  insists 
that  it  has  an  absolute  right  to  administer  its  resources 
as  it  will.  This  is  a  wholesale  begging  of  a  great  moral 
question.  Most  of  the  factors  which  capital  monopolizes 
spring  from  natural  resources.  God,  the  common  Father 
of  all  men,  is  the  author  of  all  natural  wealth.  His 
children  alike  have  their  inalienable  rights  in  such  wealth. 
In  the  Hebrew  theocracy  it  was  fundamental  that  the 
land,  the  source  of  common  support,  the  real  source 
of  all  wealth,  belonged  to  the  people.  And  that  this 
common  right  of  use  might  never  be  annulled,  it  was 
provided  that  once  in  so  often  there  should  be  a  redis- 
tribution of  land. 

It  was  the  capitalistic  violation  of  this  law,  a  viola- 
tion which  led  to  the  oppression  of  the  poor,  which  in- 
spired the  prophets  to  utter  their  fierce  philippics  of 
denunciation  against  the  luxurious  rich.  Precisely  the 
same  conditions,  only  on  a  vastly  exaggerated  scale, 
which  drew  from  the  prophets  their  fiery  condemnations, 
exist  in  the  capitalistic  world  of  to-day.  At  its  heart 
the  boasted  absolute  ownership  of  capital  is  an  atheism. 
What  becomes  of  God's  right  and  of  the  rights  of  all 
God's  children  in  God's  own  world? 

On  the  other  hand,  labor,  especially  as  expressed  in 
the  theories  of  Socialism,  makes  the  hugely  false  claim 
to  being  the  producer  of  all  values.  In  its  widest  and 
most  legitimate  application,   it  comes  near  being  true 


3o6      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

that  labor  is  the  developer  of  all  mercantile  values. 
But  in  its  more  limited  application,  as  defined  by  the 
representatives  of  organized  labor,  it  is  very  far  from 
true  that  labor  is  the  exclusive  producer  of  values.  Brain 
has  entered  fully  as  largely  as  brawn  into  the  develop- 
ment of  mercantile  values.  The  inventor  who  mul- 
tiplies the  working  power  of  man  a  hundredfold  has  by 
his  single  invention  indefinitely  multiplied  the  possi- 
bilities of  labor.  Is  he  not  a  producer?  And  is  he  not 
entitled  to  special  reward  for  his  benefaction? 

Then,  as  an  essential  factor  in  production  is  capital 
itself.  Capital,  as  directed  by  somebody,  furnishes  the 
appliances  and  the  methods  without  which  the  hands 
of  a  thousand  laborers  would  be  empty  and  useless. 
Surely,  capital,  however  owned,  is  a  prime  necessity  to 
production.  The  theory,  then,  that  "labor"  is  the  sole 
producer  of  values  is  fundamentally  and  viciously  wrong. 
Before  capital  and  labor  can  meet  together  on  the  planes 
of  harmony  it  is  an  absolute  necessity  that  both  shall 
abandon  their  false  fortifications. 

It  may  be  frankly  admitted  that  the  conditions  of 
reconciliation  between  the  two  forces  are  not  yet  fully 
developed.  This  is  not  strange.  All  good  things  do 
not  come  with  cyclonic  speed.  The  most  valuable 
adjustments  governing  human  relations  are  evolutionary 
in  their  development.  But,  given  the  premises  of  God 
and  the  world,  of  divine  Sonship  and  the  growing  sense 
of  human  brotherhood,  and  there  is  no  room  for  despair 
as  to  the  ultimate  advent  of  right  human  adjustments. 

The  highest  ideals  now  in  sight  would  seem  to  call 
for   a   common   basis   of   interest   between   capital   and 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  307 

labor  in  their  mutual  products.  This  ideal  can  be 
realized  only  under  some  philosophy  of  cooperation.  A 
cooperative  atmosphere  is  one  favorable  to  brotherhood. 
It  welds  sentiment  and  effort  in  a  common  interest. 
It  is  this  spirit  which  holds  together  and  makes  effective 
the  great  corporations.  In  them  cooperation  has  shown 
its  power  to  develop  the  most  gigantic  industries  known 
to  history.  The  objection  to  this  kind  of  cooperation 
is  that  it  is  of  the  class  order.  While  it  deals  with  in- 
terests which  affect  the  common  welfare,  it  subsidizes 
for  its  own  ends  all  the  productive  agencies;  it  finally 
turns  the  revenues  earned,  however  immense,  into  the 
pockets  of  the  few.  The  great  masses  are  practically 
shut  away  from  the  benefits  of  such  cooperation.  The 
imperative  need  is  for  the  creation  of  cooperative  methods 
broad  enough  to  include  all  producers. 

The  present  history  of  cooperative  developments  is 
not  without  great  significance  and  promise.  This  move- 
ment has  more  largely  characterized  England,  and  the 
nations  of  Europe  than  the  United  States.  In  the  United 
Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  the  cooperative  movement 
includes  about  3,000,000  people.  Its  retail  stores  sell 
annually  $400,000,000  of  goods,  while  $130,000,000  of 
goods  are  created  in  its  manufacturing  establishments.1 
The  governing  rule  of  this  union  is  that  profits  earned 
shall  be  equitably  divided  between  capitalist,  workers, 
and  purchasers.  "Germany  in  1908  had  24,652  co- 
operative societies,  with  3,658,437  members.  Denmark, 
with  a  population  of  only  2,500,000,  had  about  1,200 
retail  stores,  with  200,000  members,  and  has  developed 

1  Aneurin  Williams,  Co-Partnership  and  Profit-Sharing,  p.  312. 


308     CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

productive  cooperation  as  no  other  country  has.  Basle, 
with  125,000  inhabitants,  had  28,000  cooperative  buyers. 
Since  1908  these  figures  have  grown  very  much."1  This 
cooperative  movement  is  rapidly  spreading  in  France 
and,  indeed,  throughout  Europe. 

The  principle  is  so  far  established  as  to  be  beyond 
experimental  stages.  Its  capacity  for  the  widest  appli- 
cation to  world-business  may  in  many  and  largely  im- 
portant features  still  await  development.  But  of  the 
essential  justice  and  sanity  of  the  principle  there  seems 
little  room  for  doubt.  Indeed,  many  important  applica- 
tions of  the  cooperative  principle  have  long  had  practical 
approval.  Our  public  highways,  school  systems,  gas 
and  waterworks,  the  postal  systems,  are  illustrative  of 
a  common  service  for  the  benefit  of  which  the  people 
cheerfully  cooperate  in  the  payment  of  taxes.  The 
number  of  public-service  appliances  which  might  serve 
common  interests  and  be  cooperatively  supported  by 
the  community  seems  susceptible  of  great  enlargement. 

It  is  evident  that  wherever  this  principle  may  be 
adopted  in  the  business  world  it  will  prove  unifying 
and  not  competitive;  it  will  draw  men  together  in  com- 
mon interests.  It  will  awaken  in  all  the  spirit  of  a 
common  partnership.  It  will  create  around  itself  an 
atmosphere  of  fidelity,  of  industry  and  thrift.  Its  very 
ideals  will  put  to  shame  the  spirit  of  shirking  and  of 
time-serving — qualities  which  are  now  a  pervasive  blight 
in  the  laboring  world.  Above  all,  it  is  a  principle  in 
sublime  harmony  with  the  ideals  of  Jesus  Christ.  In 
its  ampleness  there  is  room  for  the  rich  and  the  poor  to 

1  Rauschenbusch,  Christianizing  the  Social  Order,  p.  385. 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  309 

meet  together  in  the  genuine  feeling  that  the  Lord  is 
the  Maker  of  them  all.  Let  the  animosities  which  now 
prevail  between  capital  and  labor  be  once  removed, 
and  the  largest  door  for  the  realization  of  the  divine 
brotherhood  of  man  is  wide  open.  Happily,  the  signs 
multiply  that  the  moral  education  of  the  age  is  setting 
in  this  direction. 

IV 

Kindred  to  the  spirit  of  cooperation  which  must  wed 
capital  and  labor  in  the  bonds  of  common  interests, 
and  of  not  less  significance,  is  the  spirit  of  federation 
which  is  to-day  leaguing  the  Protestant  denominations 
into  the  unity  of  a  common  Christian  mission.  We 
have  seen  how  signally  this  spirit  is  asserting  itself  in 
the  interrelations  of  the  great  missionary  boards.  One 
of  the  most  signal  services  of  missions  to  the  home 
churches  is  the  enforcement  upon  the  attention  of  these 
churches  of  the  supreme  importance  of  Christian  unity. 
The  missionary  workers  scattered  among  the  wide, 
dense,  and  darkened  paganisms  are  filled  with  a  heart- 
hunger  for  brotherly  fellowship.  Their  very  sense  of 
isolation  prompts  them  to  support  each  other  in  the 
work  and  purposes  for  which  they  stand  in  common. 
A  sense  of  the  vast  and  overwhelming  needs  of  the  world, 
of  their  own  insufficiency  in  the  presence  of  these  needs, 
forces  upon  these  workers  both  the  fitness  and  necessity 
of  entering  into  a  holy  leagueship  with  all  who  in  the 
midst  of  pagan  cults  are  truly  seeking  to  exalt  the  name 
of  Christ.  In  presence  of  countless  heathen  whose 
supreme  need  is  to  know  Jesus  Christ,  there  comes  to 
these  workers  a  sense  of  the  essential  pettiness  of  the 


3io      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

differing  views  which  too  often  and  too  long,  in  the 
homeland,  have  separated  the  denominations. 

Not  in  the  modern  ages  has  there  been  witnessed  so 
noble  an  expression  in  the  interests  of  Christian  unity 
as  that  given  in  the  recent  World's  Missionary  Con- 
ference at  Edinburgh.  In  this  Conference  was  brought 
together  a  great  interdenominational  body  with  the 
single  purpose  of  devising  cooperative  methods  for  Chris- 
tianizing the  heathen  world.  The  conference  was  com- 
posed of  exceptionally  able  and  experienced  men  who 
in  a  very  inclusive  way  represented  the  entire  mission 
work  of  the  Christian  world.  The  great  emphasis  put 
upon  the  necessity  of  cooperative  Christian  effort  was 
such  as  powerfully  to  impress  all  that  the  present  is 
no  time  for  the  wasting  of  Christian  energies  in  fruit- 
less theological  and  ecclesiastical  controversies. 

The  real  spirit  of  Christianity,  the  Christianity  of 
Christ,  the  spirit  of  its  teaching,  consecration,  and 
sacrifice,  is  nowhere  more  perfectly  exemplified  than 
among  missionary  workers.  A  concerted  and  supreme 
call  of  these  workers  is  a  summons  to  the  home  churches 
to  forget  their  differences  and  to  unite  their  forces  for 
the  salvation  of  the  world. 

The  spirit  of  federation  is  working  like  a  leaven  among 
the  home  mission  boards  of  our  own  country.  Less 
than  three  years  ago  the  Home  Missions  Council  in- 
augurated the  "Neglected  Fields  Survey."  Just  recently 
under  the  united  auspices  of  the  home  boards  a  series 
of  two-days  conferences,  to  which  were  invited  all  the 
home  mission  leaders  in  every  State  visited,  were  held 
in    the    two    Dakotas,    Montana,    Oregon,    Utah,    and 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  311 

Colorado.  In  these  conferences  two  points  were  sought, 
namely,  first:  "To  give  State  leaders  an  insight  into 
the  large  relations  and  latest  developments  of  the  tasks 
in  which  they  share;  and,  second,  to  press  home  the 
absolute  importance  of  attacking  the  home  mission  prob- 
lem in  the  spirit  and  by  the  methods  of  close  interdenom- 
inational cooperation."  The  prompt  and  hearty  response 
given  at  all  these  conferences  to  the  latter  proposition 
was  such  as  to  give  evidence  that  in  all  these  States 
the  "old  era  of  church  competition  is  passing  away." 

The  new  spirit  of  federation  is  one  of  largest  prophecy 
for  Christianity.  It  is  bringing  to  the  churches  them- 
selves a  quickening  revelation  of  their  vital  and  essential 
unity.  It  is  greatly  emphasizing  the  lesson  that  for 
the  common  tasks  of  Christian  work  denominational 
differences  need  not  stand  in  the  way  of  cooperative 
effort.  It  is  not  clear  that  the  obliteration  of  denom- 
inational lines  would  best  serve  the  interests  of  Chris- 
tianity. It  is  increasingly  clear  that  denominations  as 
such  may  be  so  imbued  with  the  larger  mission  of  the 
Kingdom,  so  possessed  and  inspired  with  the  love  of 
Christ,  as  to  prompt  them  to  work  together  in  a  sublime 
unity  for  the  redemption  of  the  world.  It  is  the  spirit 
of  such  a  unity  which  more  than  ever  before  is  moving 
upon  the  heart  of  the  modern  Church.  The  demand 
in  many  fields  for  efficient  administration  of  Christian 
work,  economic  necessities,  such  division  of  effort  as 
promises  most  effective  results  with  least  waste  of  power 
— these,  and  many  kindred  considerations,  are  all  pro- 
motive of  a  cooperative  purpose  and  effort  in  Christian 
service.     Instead  of  moving  out  on  divergent  lines  of 


3i2      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

sectarianism,  the  federative  spirit  is  turning  the  faces  of 
the  denominations  in  common  toward  Christ,  and  in  this 
vision  they  are  increasingly  discovering  that  the  work 
which  he  would  have  done  is  one  which  makes  an  equal 
call  upon  all  alike.  In  this  spirit  Protestantism  is  find- 
ing its  true  self,  is  discovering  that  larger  unity  and 
broader  catholicity  in  the  strength  and  coordinations  of 
which  it  will  move  out  upon  new  and  enlarged  missions  of 

moral  conquest. 

V 
In  a  previous  chapter  there  has  been  presented  some 
survey  of  modern  missions.  But  the  significance  of 
missions  in  their  relation  to  the  present  and  immediate 
future  progress  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  the  earth  is  an 
immeasurable  quantity.  Proceeding  from  missions,  as 
from  a  creative  source,  innumerable  and  unassessable 
beneficent  influences  are  moving  to  the  very  heart  of 
heathen  society.  No  one  can  measure  the  indirect 
moral  values  resulting  from  the  spiritual  truth  as  both 
preached  and  illustrated  in  this  great  work.  In  Dr. 
W.  F.  Oldham's  admirable  lecture  on  the  "Pros  and 
Cons  of  Missions"  he  says: 

The  purer  tenets  of  Christianity,  its  sublime  ethical  codes,  its  high 
spiritual  vision,  its  teaching  of  justice  and  mercy,  and  its  inculcation 
of  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  and  a  fine  philanthropy  toward  all  the  dis- 
tressed and  sorrow-smitten  in  life  have  forcibly  impressed  the  faiths  it 
confronts  in  all  lands;  and  every  one  of  them  has  taken  on  a  purer  ethical 
character  and  is  sounding  a  deeper  religious  note  because  of  Christianity's 
presence.  The  very  first  effect  is  to  exorcise  the  cruelties  and  grosser 
forms  of  lust  and  impurity,  that  through  human  weakness  have  become 
mixed  with  the  teachings  of  the  ethnic  faith.  A  thousand  immoralities 
and  cruelties  have  fled  from  the  public  life  of  India  and  China,  and  are 
fleeing  from  the  dark  stretches  of  Africa,  smitten  by  the  invisible  sword, 
by  the  aroused  human  spirit,  awakened  among  all  the  people  by  the 
hearing  of  the  higher  law.  .  .  .  There  is  a  positive  cleansing  of  public  opinion 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  313 

and  an  openly  promulgated  code  of  conduct  hitherto  unknown — a  new- 
valuation  of  man  as  man  and  of  woman  as  a  partner  of  man,  his  sharer 
in  life's  burdens  and,  with  him,  the  crown  of  creation,  and  a  new  soft- 
ness and  tenderness  of  feeling  thrown  around  childhood.  In  a  word, 
both  in  the  public  mind  and  in  the  homes  of  the  people  the  presence  of 
the  Christian  missionary  and  all  that  he  stands  for  brings  new  ideas  into 
the  social  order  and  a  new  atmosphere  into  the  home.1 

Christian  missions  present  the  boldest,  the  most  com- 
prehensive, progressive,  and  prophetic  moral  program 
now  operative  in  the  world's  history.  No  living  seer 
can  forecast  the  fruits  to  be  realized  from  this  program 
even  while  the  present  century  is  yet  young. 

VI 

On  the  summit  of  the  Andes,  and  on  a  line  marking 
the  boundary  between  Chile  and  Argentina,  stands  a 
colossal  statue  of  Christ,  and  upon  its  pedestal  are 
carved  the  words:  "Sooner  shall  these  mountains  crum- 
ble into  dust  than  that  Chileans  and  Argentines  break 
the  peace,  which  at  the  feet  of  Christ,  the  Redeemer, 
they  have  sworn  to  maintain." 

On  August  28,  19 13,  there  was  dedicated,  in  the 
presence  of  a  most  distinguished  company  representing 
the  great  nations  of  the  earth,  one  of  the  finest  public 
buildings  in  the  world— the  "PALACE  OF  PEACE  at 
THE  HAGUE."  Ten  years  earlier,  Mr.  Andrew 
Carnegie  contributed  for  the  establishment  of  this  build- 
ing $1,500,000.  Toward  its  final  completion  and  embel- 
lishment nearly  all  the  nations  of  Europe  have  made 
signal  contributions.  This  building  is  dedicated  as  the 
home  for  the  "Permanent  Court  of  Arbitration  for  the 
Adjustment  of  International  Disputes." 

1  India,  Malaysia,  and  the  Philippines. 


3i4      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

The  heroic  statue  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  standing 
high  above  the  Andes,  and  the  superb  "Palace  of  Peace" 
at  The  Hague,  are  two  significant  symbols  of  great 
international  movements  in  the  interests  of  peace  which 
more  and  more  are  commanding  the  thought  of  the 
modern  world.  Doubtless  a  prominent  factor  in  enforc- 
ing this  conception  upon  the  world's  thought  is  the 
inordinate  and  oppressive  costliness  of  modern  national 
armaments.  The  cost  of  an  "armed  neutrality"  is  so 
great  as  to  threaten  the  bankruptcy  of  nations. 

Treasure  by  the  billions — treasure  which  ought  to  find 
investment  in  sources  of  common  prosperity,  treasure 
adequate  to  endow  all  the  universities,  technical  and  art 
schools  required  by  civilization,  treasure  ample  to  main- 
tain all  the  eleemosynary  institutions,  hospitals,  asylums 
for  the  blind  and  unfortunate,  homes  for  the  aged  and 
indigent — all  this,  by  systems  of  national  taxation,  is 
being  extorted  from  the  sources  of  legitimate  production, 
from  the  hands  of  toilers,  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining 
the  vastly  unproductive,  wasteful,  destructive,  and  what 
some  day  will  be  sure  to  be  ranked  as  barbarous,  systems 
of  world  militarism. 

The  burdens  thus  imposed  are  felt  by  all  nations  to  be 
increasingly  intolerable.  Thus  there  is  forced  upon  the 
judgment  of  sane  rulers,  and  upon  the  collective  thought 
of  mankind,  the  unescapable  necessity  of  bringing  the 
nations  together  in  such  a  compact  of  peace  as  will  rid 
the  world  of  the  exhaustive  and  ruinous  taxation  of  the 
present  war-footing. 

The  very  economical  necessities  of  civilization  are  thus 
become   the   stern   schoolmaster   to   force    the    nations 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  315 

toward  a  compact  of  peace.  Certain  it  is  that  a  most 
phenomenal  interest  in  the  world's  peace  has  become 
awakened  in  modern  thought.  In  the  last  fifteen  years 
considerably  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  arbitration 
treaties  have  been  made  effective  in  the  settlement  of 
disputes  as  between  nations.  Peace  societies  in  large 
numbers  have  been  organized  throughout  Christendom. 

The  Hague  Court  of  Arbitration  for  the  adjustment  of 
international  disputes,  now  participated  in  by  forty-two 
nations,  has  become  an  established  institution.  Under 
its  auspices  there  have  already  been  assembled  two  great 
International  Congresses,  which,  in  the  discussion  of 
fundamental  principles,  have  reached  large  agreements 
in  the  direction  of  general  peace  as  between  nations.  It 
is  planned  that  a  Third  International  Congress  shall 
meet  at  The  Hague  in  the  near  future. 

"An  International  Peace  Plan"  as  promulgated  by 
President  Wilson  of  the  United  States,  up  to  October  11, 
19 13,  had  received  the  acceptance  of  twenty-nine  coun- 
tries, with  the  probability  that  the  signatures  of  many 
other  nations  would  be  added  to  the  list. 

There  is  now  in  process,  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean,  an 
enthusiastic  celebration  of  a  completed  century  of  peace 
between  the  two  great  Anglo-Saxon  nations — England 
and  America.    Thus: 

"Two  Empires  by  the  sea, 
Two  nations  great  and  free, 

One  anthem  raise, 
One  race  of  ancient  fame, 
One  tongue,  one  faith  we  claim, 
One  God  whose  glorious  name 
We  love  and  praise." 


3i6      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

The  entire  trend  of  international  law,  defining  and 
guaranteeing  the  mutual  rights  of  nations,  is  in  the  di- 
rection of  universal  and  permanent  peace.  Modern  con- 
ditions are  rapidly  bringing  to  realization  the  fact  that 
the  whole  world  is  bound  together  by  the  ties  of  common 
mercantile,  educational,  and  industrial  interests.  War  is 
a  relentless  foe  to  these  interests.  The  only  philosophy 
which  fits  the  needs  of  the  growing  modern  world  is  that 
of  brotherhood,  and  not  of  alienation  and  strife. 

Thus  there  has  come  into  modern  world  thought,  like 
the  lift  of  a  tidal  wave,  the  recognized  and  imperative 
need  for  the  inauguration  of  a  reign  of  peace,  not  only  as 
between  nations,  but  as  preparatory  everywhere  for  the 
realization  of  a  real  brotherhood  among  men.  This 
movement  will  be  a  growing  leaven  in  the  world's  con- 
victions. It  can  be  classed  only  as  a  movement  of  the 
Kingdom.  It  is  a  movement  which  will  minister  largely 
to  the  fulfillment  of  that  prophecy  of  peace  on  earth  and 
good  will  among  men  which  uttered  itself  in  the  angelic 
song  above  the  birth  scene  of  Him  who  came  into  the 
world  as  the  "PRINCE  OF  PEACE." 

VII 

If  it  is  true,  as  is  often  said,  that  the  philosophy  of 
to-day  will  rule  the  faith  of  to-morrow,  then,  in  the 
philosophical  thinking  of  the  present  there  are  not  a 
few  auspicious  promises  for  a  regal  spiritual  future. 
In  philosophy  there  is  a  marked  reaction  from  the 
materialism  of  a  generation  ago.  In  present  philosoph- 
ical thought  may  inhere  a  large  preparation  for  the 
incoming  of  a  new  spiritual  era. 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  317 

That  recent  philosophy  has  given  large  room  in  its 
discussions  to,  and  that  its  own  positions  have  been 
much  influenced  by,  the  spiritual  claims  of  religion, 
cannot  be  denied.  William  James  would  hardly  be 
claimed  as  an  advocate  of  the  orthodox  Christian  faith, 
but  his  pragmatic  philosophy  gives  large  justification  to 
the  claims  of  religious  experience.  One  can  hardly 
read  Dr.  Fairbairn's  great  work,  The  Philosophy  of 
The  Christian  Religion,  without  concluding  that  he  has 
not  only  given  a  masterful  philosophical  setting  to  the 
phenomena  of  Christianity,  but  that  he  has  as  well  given 
to  Christianity  a  most  indubitable  place  as  a  divine 
and  spiritual  religion.  Borden  P.  Bowne,  while  yet  a 
very  young  man,  came  conspicuously  to  notice  by  his 
brilliant  refutation  of  a  materialistic  philosophy.  He 
holds  secure  historic  rank  with  the  great  philosophers 
of  the  age.  He  was  a  foremost  expounder  of  a  theistic 
and  spiritual  view  of  the  universe.  Personally  he  found 
rest  of  mind  and  heart  nowhere  as  in  his  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ. 

Among  living  philosophers  Rudolf  Eucken  easily  holds 
a  first  rank.  He  has  searched  history  and  the  human 
soul  with  a  profound  insight.  His  philosophy  is  an 
insistence  upon  the  rightful  supremacy  of  the  spiritual 
in  the  universe.  The  loftiest  life,  indeed  the  only  true 
life,  of  man  must  come  from  the  normal  development 
of  his  spiritual  nature.  If  Eucken  had  committed  him- 
self more  definitely  to  the  Christian  view  of  life,  this, 
from  a  distinctive  Christian  standpoint,  would  have  been 
more  satisfactory.  But  his  philosophy  at  center  is  not 
inharmonious  with  Christianity.     No  more  withering  ex- 


3i8      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

posure  of  the  insufficiency  and  unworthiness  of  the 
materialistic  life,  no  more  brilliant  summons  to  find 
the  higher  life  through  spiritual  emancipations,  can  be 
heard  than  voice  themselves  in  Eucken's  philosophy. 
In  the  world's  thought  it  may  be  that  such  as  Fair- 
bairn,  Bowne,  and  Eucken  are  the  philosophical  fore- 
runners of  a  near-coming  and  transforming  spiritual  age. 

When  we  predict  that  Christianity  is  to  become  the 
universal  and  final  religion,  we  must  remember  two 
facts:  first,  the  continuous  growth  of  the  spiritual  educa- 
tion of  the  race;  second,  the  divine  adaptiveness  of 
Christianity  to  the  growing  knowledge  and  needs  of 
mankind.  The  Christianity  of  to-day  does  not  mean 
any  literal  conformity  to  a  dogmatic  code  of  morals  as 
announced  either  in  the  second  or  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, or  indeed  at  any  time  in  the  past.  The  prin- 
ciples announced  by  Jesus  Christ  are  continually  expand- 
ing themselves  in  adaptation  to  the  world's  new  knowl- 
edge and  necessitated  thinking.  Christian  thought  is 
continuously  enriching  itself  by  its  appropriation  and 
assimilation  of  new  discoveries  of  truth. 

The  nations  and  the  ages  have  all  and  always  been  in 
possession  of  valuable  truths,  of  ideas  and  moral  ideals 
which  did  not  originate  in  Palestine  in  the  days  of  Christ. 
The  infinite  Spirit  of  Truth  has  touched  the  heart  and 
the  intellect  of  men  in  all  ages  and  in  all  races.  It  is 
the  glory  of  Christianity,  indeed  one  of  the  most  con- 
vincing tests  of  its  divinity,  that  it  vitally  appropriates 
all  true  spiritual  ideals,  that  it  constantly  enriches  its  own 
thought  by  the  absorption  into  itself  of  all  truth-values* 

Mr.  Charles  Henry  Dickinson  has  recently  published 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  319 

a  brilliant  and  thought-provoking  book,  The  Christian 
Reconstruction  of  Modern  Life,  in  which  he  emphasizes 
the  great  indebtedness  of  modern  civilization  to  Hellenic 
thought.  In  this  discussion  he  luminously  sets  forth 
a  large  field  of  fact  and  truth.  I  prefer,  however,  to 
think  of  the  Spirit  of  Christianity  as  the  primal  inspira- 
tion of  the  race.  When  Christianity  appropriates,  as  it 
has  done,  the  best  ideals  in  the  Hellenic  and  Roman 
civilizations,  I  think  of  it  as  simply  taking  over  and 
putting  its  imprint  upon  that  which  is  by  divine  right 
its  own.  And  this  process  will  indefinitely  continue. 
The  Spirit  of  Truth  is  abroad  in  the  world,  and  is  still 
taking  of  the  things  of  Christ  and  showing  them  unto 
men.  Christianity  has  as  yet  by  no  means  been  fully 
translated  into  human  thought. 

In  just  the  measure  in  which  the  Spirit  of  Christianity 
shall  dominate  the  heart  and  conduct  of  society,  in 
that  measure  will  a  spiritual  philosophy  dominate  human 
thinking.  Christianity  is  God's  supreme  appeal  to  the 
deepest  and  most  inalienable  instincts  of  human  nature. 
But  this  appeal  is  primarily  made  neither  to  man's 
sensuous  nor  to  his  intellectual  nature.  An  entire 
age  may  take  a  swing  toward  materialism,  may  seek  to 
find  its  completest  satisfactions  in  physical  enjoyment, 
in  the  pleasures  of  sense;  or,  in  a  mood  which  deifies 
the  intellect,  may  seek  its  supreme  good  in  realms  ex- 
plored solely  by  the  rational  faculties.  But  Christianity 
makes  its  supreme  quest  and  yields  its  highest  benefits 
in  neither  of  these  realms.  It  teaches  that  man's  sensual 
nature  is  something  to  be  held  under  authority  as  a 
bond-servant,  and  it  no  more  reveals  itself  to  the  pride 


32o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

of  intellect  than  do  the  beauties  of  a  sunrise  to  a  blind 
Samson. 

And  all  history  confirms  this  attitude  of  Christianity 
as  one  of  divine  wisdom.  Man  in  his  deepest  being  is 
far  more  a  spirit  than  an  animal,  far  more  a  divinity 
than  simply  a  logician.  It  is  to  the  divine  and  wor- 
shipful in  man  that  Christianity  makes  its  final  appeal. 
Every  historical  experiment  with  a  purely  sensual  philos- 
ophy has  only  led  its  age  to  a  Circe's  banquet.  Wher- 
ever intellectualism  has  been  substituted  for  a  spiritual 
religion  the  result  has  been  dearth  and  barrenness  to 
the  common  soul.  Man  is  too  fundamentally  a  spiritual 
being  ever  to  find  complete  or  final  satisfactions  in 
realms  either  distinctively  material  or  mental.  How- 
ever diverted  from  the  spiritual  an  age  may  be  tem- 
porarily, such  condition  cannot  indefinitely  continue.  In 
sheer  revolt  against  the  husks  and  hunger  of  its  starved 
life,  the  human  soul  will  in  time  assert  its  quest  for 
fellowships  and  satisfactions  which  are  spiritual. 

Christianity  has  already  displaced  great  paganisms, 
has  purged  civilization  of  many  evils.  But  it  is  still 
in  its  buoyant  youth.  While  its  philosophy  was  never 
so  luminously  known  nor  so  widely  accepted  as  to-day, 
yet  its  larger  mission  of  conquest  is  in  the  future.  It 
will  increasingly  clothe  itself  with  knowledge,  with 
light,  and  with  power,  until  it  shall  have  won  for  itself 
the  spiritual  supremacy  of  the  race. 

VIII 
Any  adequate  view  of  present  moral  world  movements 
must   give  due  space  to  the  temperance  reform.     No 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  321 

scourge  has  more  fearfully  ravaged  human  welfare  than 
the  evils  of  intemperance.  There  can  be  no  ideal 
civilization  in  which  the  liquor  traffic  shall  coexist.  It 
is  from  first  to  last,  and  in  all  its  phases,  a  foe  to  society. 
There  is  worldwide  and  rapidly  growing  conviction 
that  this  traffic  is  an  evil  which  must  be  dealt  with 
and  resisted  by  a  union  of  all  good  forces.  Every  civil- 
ized nation  in  the  world  is  moving,  in  one  form  or  another, 
against  the  traffic  in  strong  drink — either  to  restrict 
its  power  or  to  abolish  it  altogether. 

In  the  American  republic,  nine  States  have  adopted 
constitutional  prohibition  both  of  the  manufacture  and 
sale  of  intoxicating  liquor — thus  outlawing  the  traffic. 
The  proposition  of  constitutional  amendments  embody- 
ing the  same  ends  is  in  process  of  submission  to  popular 
vote  in  several  other  States.  More  than  forty  million 
of  the  peoples  of  the  republic  are  living  in  territory 
which  under  local  option  has  been  voted  as  "dry." 

In  the  State  of  Kentucky,  which  has  been  relatively 
one  of  the  leading  producers  of  whisky,  there  is  a  pop- 
ular uprising  which  not  only  promises  overwhelmingly 
to  prohibit  the  sale  of  liquors,  but  which  threatens  to 
put  all  the  distilleries  out  of  commission.  The  forces 
of  temperance  in  general  were  never  so  effective,  and 
never  so  united  as  now.  They  have  found  their  work- 
ing unity  not  so  much  by  a  merging  of  theories  as  by 
the  facing  of  a  common  foe.  A  great  reenforcement 
to  temperance  movements  is  the  growing  conviction 
in  the  medical  profession  that  alcohol  has  little  or  no 
value  even  as  a  medicine.  The  literature  of  temperance 
education  was  never  so  voluminous  nor  so  scientifically 


322      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

convincing  as  now.  A  systematic  campaign  is  being 
efficiently  conducted  in  connection  with  large  sections 
of  public-school  instruction.  There  is  a  growing 
coalescence  of  all  good  forces,  which  with  more  than 
the  power  of  an  oath-bound  crusade  is  working  toward 
the  sure  destruction  of  the  traffic  in  drink. 

In  the  United  States  as  a  whole  the  liquor  interests 
are  in  retreat.  They  have  seen  the  handwriting  of 
doom  upon  their  very  banqueting  walls.  An  infallible 
indication  of  the  decreasing  confidence  and  the  panicky 
feeling  of  the  promoters  of  the  traffic  in  the  stability 
and  security  of  their  cause  would  seem  to  be  evidenced 
in  the  market  quotations  of  their  stocks  and  bonds. 
The  stocks  of  the  distilleries  and  brewing  combinations 
have  declined  by  the  amount  of  fifty  per  cent  in  the 
last  three  years.  The  Distillers'  Securities  Corporation, 
a  corporation  supposed  to  have  much  the  same  repre- 
sentative relation  to  the  distilling  interests  as  the  Amer- 
ican Tobacco  Company  to  the  general  tobacco  industry, 
has  put  forth  a  large  fundamental  issue  of  five  per  cent 
bonds.  At  the  present  writing  these  bonds  are  quoted 
around  sixty-four  cents  on  a  dollar.  Surely,  not  a  very 
optimistic  price  for  a  bond  underlying  so  great  vested 
interests! 

IX 

The  strength  and  growth  of  certain  great  moral  insti- 
tutions merit  more  than  a  passing  notice.  The  Sunday 
school,  devoted  to  the  biblical  education  and  Christian 
training  of  the  young,  represents  a  movement  of  most 
commanding  significance.  The  total  number  of  teachers 
and  scholars  enrolled  in  the  Protestant  Sunday  schools 


PROPHETIC  VISTAS  323 

of  the  world  is  nearly,  or  quite,  29,000,000.  The  Sunday 
school  enrollment  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
alone  is  4,227,698;  and  if  the  same  rate  of  increase  as 
has  resulted  in  the  last  three  years  should  continue 
unbroken,  there  would  be  an  enrollment  of  more  than 
10,000,000  in  the  year  1926. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  is  widely 
established  throughout  the  world.  There  were  at  the 
last  report  9,105  of  these  Associations  distributed  over 
the  globe.  These  Associations  employ  3,853  paid  secre- 
taries and  other  officials  at  an  annual  cost  of  $13,196,809, 
In  their  various  biblical,  religious,  and  physical  edu- 
cational departments  they  are  rendering  an  inestimable 
service.  The  world's  Young  Women's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation, working  in  the  interests  largely  of  young  women, 
is  kindred  in  mission  to  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  work.  Affiliated  with  this  movement  are 
now  eighteen  distinct  national  associations,  all  of  them 
moving  into  enlarging  usefulness. 

The  Salvation  Army  of  the  world  and  the  Volunteers 
of  America  represent  a  movement  of  religious  activity 
and  usefulness,  mostly  among  the  poor,  which  it  is 
impossible  to  put  into  statistical  measurement,  and 
which  in  the  exhibition  of  Christian  devotion  and  service 
transcends  all  praise. 

Christian  societies  of  various  kinds,  inclusive  of  the 
great  Bible  and  tract  societies  of  the  world,  all  devoted 
to  high  Christian  ends,  are  too  numerous  for  specific 
mention.  They  all  have  a  mission  and  place  in  the 
world-program  of  the  Kingdom. 

I  have  attempted  in  this  chapter  to  indicate  a  few, 


324      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

only  a  few,  of  the  working  factors  operative  in  the  con- 
structive moral  program  of  present-day  Christianity.  In 
this  program  appear  large  retrieving  forces.  The  col- 
lective Church  is  giving  great  study  to  the  correction 
of  mistakes,  to  revision  of  its  methods  and  policies. 
In  the  spirit  of  prophetic  outlook  it  is  girding  itself 
with  mightier  unities,  with  larger  knowledge,  with  more 
reliance  on  prayer,  with  deeper  consecrations,  and  with 
profounder  purpose  for  its  world-tasks.  In  the  present 
conditions  there  is  not  only  large  promise  that  it  will 
regain  its  lost  ground,  but  that  with  quickened  pace  it 
will  move  forward  to  new  and  superlative  victories. 

Man  is  to-day  not  only  traversing  continents  and 
oceans  at  express  speed,  but  he  is  in  command  of  electric 
and  instant  knowledge  of  all  current  human  movements 
throughout  the  world.  The  processes  of  world-educa- 
tion are  now  rapid  and  pervasive  as  never  before.  The 
public  conscience  was  never  so  sensitive  as  now  to  moral 
issues.  Christianity  never  had  so  many  working  allies 
in  the  field.  "The  secular  press  is  preaching  righteous- 
ness, the  editors  and  the  authors  are  teaching  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christ's  kingdom,  the  politicians  are  putting 
them  into  their  platforms."1  Why  should  there  not  be 
such  a  rising  of  Christian  interest  that  a  nation  shall 
be  born  in  a  day? 

In  the  meantime  the  world's  humanity,  in  the  light 
of  all  its  history,  has  no  hope  save  in  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ. 


'James  R.  Howerton,  The  Church  and  Social  Reforms,  p.  126. 


THE  ABIDING  CHURCH 


325 


And  I  say  also  unto  thee,  That  thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I 
will  build  my  church:  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it. 
— Matthew  16.  18. 

The  ideal  Church,  like  the  ideal  government,  does  not  exist.  Only 
particular  churches  exist;  and  no  one  of  these  is  the  Church  more  than 
any  other.  They  are  all  the  Church  of  Christ  in  so  far,  and  only  in  so 
far,  as  they  have  his  spirit  and  do  his  work;  and  they  derive  all  their 
value  and  authority  from  their  demonstrated  efficiency  in  building  up 
and  maintaining  the  spiritual  life  of  men.  The  Kingdom  is  one;  church 
organizations  are  many,  and  their  value  lies  in  their  furtherance  of  the 
Kingdom.  A  body  of  believers  suddenly  transplanted  to  some  uninhabited 
land,  without  priest  or  bishop,  could  found  as  true  a  Church  as  ever  existed, 
if  the  spirit  of  God  were  among  them. — Dr.  Borden  Parker  Bowne. 

The  mission  of  the  Church  will  continue  as  long  as  the  world  lasts. 
It  will  not  be  so  much  institutional  as  inspirational.  It  will  maintain 
holy  altars.  It  will  organize  noble  services  of  worship.  It  will  teach 
reverence  by  proclaiming  the  great  Presence.  It  will  not  perform  all 
the  functions  even  of  a  holy  democracy,  but  it  will  furnish  men  the  mood 
of  democrats  by  showing  them  that  they  cannot  love  God  unless  they  love 
their  brother  also.  Forms  of  words,  methods  of  ritual,  days  and  archi- 
tecture may  change,  but  the  transcendent  man  needs  to  nourish  his  soul 
on  food  that  is  not  bread  alone,  and  not  less  but  more  in  the  days  to  come 
will  men  see  that  worship  with  all  that  it  implies  is  the  cure  for  earth's 
sin  and  sorrow,  and  that  the  Church,  ever  renewing  herself  by  fresh  in- 
carnations of  the  spirit  of  her  Founder,  remains  the  mother  of  human 
greatness. — Dr.  Samuel  George  Smith. 


326 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  ABIDING  CHURCH 

A  chief  function  of  Christianity  is  to  produce  Christ- 
like men.  For  this  result  it  provides  both  agencies 
and  nurture.  Among  agencies  the  Church  has  been 
and  will  remain  the  very  chief.  It  cannot  be  too  clearly 
understood  that  the  Church  is  not  Christianity.  Nor 
is  it  synonymous  with  the  Kingdom.  In  Christ's  teach- 
ing he  put  all  emphasis  upon  the  Kingdom.  It  was 
ever  in  the  foreground  of  his  thought.  He  did,  indeed, 
give  an  important  place  to  the  distinctive  idea  of  the 
Church.  But  this  was  far  less  frequent  of  expression, 
far  less  of  emphasis,  than  the  place  and  importance 
which  he  assigned  to  the  Kingdom. 

No  sufficient  analysis  can  be  given  to  Christ's  relative 
thought  of  the  Kingdom  and  the  Church  which  will 
not  yield  the  conclusion  that  with  him  the  Kingdom 
was  the  all-inclusive  end  and  aim  of  the  gospel  which 
he  preached.  To  this  end,  the  Church,  however  im- 
portant, however  indispensable  in  itself,  was  simply 
an  agency.  In  later  time,  indeed  as  early  as  in  the 
period  of  apostolic  teaching,  the  "Church"  rather  than 
the  "Kingdom"  was  the  term  of  more  popular  Chris- 
tian use.  Why  this  substitution  may  not  perhaps  be 
altogether  historically  clear.  The  very  term  "Kingdom," 
if  it  had  been  one  of  common  proclamation,  might  have 
subjected   the   early   Christian   teachers   to   peril   from 

327 


328      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

imperial  persecution.  Roman  imperial  thought  would 
refuse  to  understand  the  Christian  import  of  the  term, 
and  it  would  be  intolerant  of  the  conception  of  a  Chris- 
tian imperium  in  imperio. 

Another  reason  for  the  popular  adoption  of  the  term 
"Church"  might  have  grown  out  of  the  practical  lim- 
itations of  early  apostolical  work.  Saint  Paul,  for  in- 
stance, laid  great  emphasis  upon  the  "Church."  Nearly 
all  of  his  epistles  were  written  to  individual  churches. 
Practically  nearly  all  the  contributions  of  the  apostles 
toward  the  Kingdom  were  embraced  in  the  organiza- 
tion and  establishment  here  and  there  of  individual 
Christian  societies.  The  Christian  societies  (churches) 
were  the  foundation  stones  necessary  to  be  laid  in  order 
to  the  after-structure  of  the  Kingdom  itself.  These 
early  churches  were  the  nuclei,  the  fountains  of  in- 
fluence, the  schools  of  nurture,  whence  the  leaven  of 
Christian  ideals  and  forces  was  to  work  its  general  way 
into  civilization. 

For  Saint  Paul,  as  for  his  illustrious  compeers,  the 
founding,  the  training  and  nurture  of  individual  churches, 
became  an  absorbing  lifework.  This  was  the  immediate 
and  providentially  assigned  work  given  to  them  as 
builders  of  the  Kingdom.  It  can  be  no  wonder  that 
the  churches  as  such  filled  both  their  heart  and  their 
vision.  But  all  this  harmonizes  perfectly  with  the 
assumption  that  the  Kingdom  was  the  larger  end  which 
these  churches  as  subsidiary  agencies  were  to  serve. 
In  contrast  with  Christ's  idealism  of  the  Kingdom, 
the  Church,  in  its  historic  developments,  has  always 
proven  an  imperfect  vehicle  of  Christianity. 


THE  ABIDING  CHURCH  329 

Christ's  conception  of  the  Kingdom  was  a  realm  of 
moral  forces,  a  society  of  good  will  and  of  benevolent 
activities,  one  of  human  brotherhood,  of  unselfishness,  a 
realm  under  whose  standards  spirit  should  be  of  more 
value  than  substance,  men  of  more  value  than  machinery ; 
in  which  God,  and  worship,  and  the  human  soul  should 
be  held  as  facts  of  transcendent  significance  and  worth. 

Christ's  kingdom  is  one  of  perfect  ideals.  It  is  dorn- 
inantly  spiritual  in  conception.  It  is  a  kingdom  of 
righteousness.  Its  law  is  the  divine  will.  Its  ideals 
have  no  space  for  unethical  motives  or  practices.  Its 
love  and  helpfulness  are  as  broad  as  the  Fatherhood 
of  God,  and  reach  to  the  last  need  of  the  weakest  and 
most  helpless  of  the  human  brotherhood.  Its  spirit 
will  not  quench  the  smoking  flax  of  moral  desire,  nor 
break  any  bruised  reed  of  righteous  aspiration.  Its 
citizenship  is  of  all  races.  To  use  a  classification  of 
Dr.  Whedon,  wherever  in  Christian  or  in  heathen  lands, 
one  has  "the  spirit  of  faith  and  the  purpose  of  right- 
eousness," whatever  else  his  knowledge,  or  lack  of  knowl- 
edge, there  is  a  citizen  of  the  Kingdom.  Christ  knows 
all  human  limitations,  whether  from  heredity,  from  en- 
vironment, from  limited  capacity,  or  from  poverty  of 
opportunity.  But  he  puts  before  all  men  ideals  born 
of  heaven,  and  not  of  earth.  And  any  man,  whatever 
his  lack  of  knowledge,  who,  according  to  his  light, 
conscientiously  puts  his  face  toward  the  good,  and  who 
seeks  to  put  evil  behind  him,  is  a  citizen  of  the  Kingdom. 

The  Church  being  a  working  organization  of  human 
forces,  has  never  in  its  practical  realizations  been  either 
as  lofty,  as  broad,  as  helpful  or  as  holy  as  are  Christ's 


33 o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

ideals  of  the  Kingdom.  The  Church  has  often  put 
organization  before  life,  creed  before  spirit,  its  orthodoxies 
before  character.  Times  without  number,  in  its  mis- 
taken judgments,  it  has  construed  the  nonessential  into 
the  order  of  the  vital,  has  instituted  inquisitions  against 
the  pure  and  good,  and  has  persecuted  the  noblest  dis- 
ciples of  truth. 

The  ideals  of  the  Kingdom  are  always  perfect.  The 
achievements  of  the  Church  have  oftentimes  been  most 
sadly  defective.  Judged  by  the  standards  of  the  King- 
dom, many  are  in  its  citizenship  who  are  not  in  the 
membership  of  the  Church;  and  many  are  formally 
enrolled  in  the  membership  of  the  Church  who  are  not 
really  citizens  of  the  Kingdom. 

The  Church  has  wrought  throughout  the  Christian 
centuries.  In  civilization  it  has  laid  broad  and  deep 
the  foundations  of  Christianity.  On  the  whole,  it  has 
been  in  the  world  the  most  fruitful  source  of  lofty  ideals, 
the  chief  educator  in  morals,  the  foremost  promoter  of 
righteousness.  It  has  inspired  civilization  with  its  noblest 
motives  and  purposes,  has  begotten  increasingly  in  the 
recent  ages  the  most  humane  thought  and  most  gra- 
cious philanthropic  ministry,  and,  as  a  very  breath  of 
heaven,  it  has  carried  an  atmosphere  of  sweetness  and 
of  helpfulness  into  the  social  and  industrial  thought  of 
the  times.  It  has  begotten  a  numerous  progeny  of 
ideals  and  forces  which  have  gone  forth  from  its  portals 
to  be  in  fields,  even  wider  than  its  own,  the  working 
evangels  of  the  Kingdom  for  all  the  world. 

The  mission  of  the  Church,  in  preparing  for  the  coming 
of  the  world-Kingdom,  has  been  vast  and  vital  beyond 


THE  ABIDING  CHURCH  331 

all  measurement.  But  the  great  revival  of  the  present 
age  is  one  of  the  Kingdom  rather  than  of  the  Church. 
As  in  the  early  Christian  ages  the  immediate  mission 
and  conception  of  the  Church  put  the  distinctive  and 
larger  idea  of  the  Kingdom  into  the  background,  so  in 
this  later  age,  after  centuries  of  preparation,  in  the 
fullness  of  time,  the  Kingdom,  a  fact  far  larger  than 
the  Church,  is  coming  to  its  own  in  Christian  thought. 

The  signs  of  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  are  sentineled 
visibly,  as  never  before,  clear  around  the  horizon  of 
the  broadest  and  most  far-seeing  Christian  thinking. 
The  belated  sleeper  has  but  to  brush  the  night  dews 
from  his  eyelashes  to  discover  that  the  mountain  tops 
are  agleam  with  the  harbingers  of  coming  day. 

A  question  of  paramount  interest,  one  which  the 
remaining  discussion  of  this  chapter  will  seek  partially 
to  answer,  is:  What  is  to  be  the  future  relation  of  the 
Church  to  the  wider  movement  of  the  incoming  King- 
dom? In  the  very  nature  of  the  case  the  Church  must 
stand  central  and  regnant  among  the  Kingdom-forces. 

The  Church  as  an  institution  grows  out  of  the  reli- 
gious necessities  of  human  nature.  As  in  society  and  in 
government  organization  is  a  necessity  to  protect  and 
to  promote  the  social  interests  of  the  community  and 
to  give  a  collective  value  to  the  institutions  of  the  State, 
so  Christianity  can  discharge  its  social  and  moral  mis- 
sion to  the  world  most  efficiently  and  only  through 
organization.  This  organization  is  the  Church.  As  in 
the  social  world  the  individual  comes  to  his  largest 
influence  in  and  through  the  social  organism,  so  in  the 
religious  life  the  individual  worker  can  realize  his  largest 


332      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

influence  and  usefulness  only  as  he  works  in  and  through 
organized  agencies. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  one  might  not  be  a  Christian 
outside  of  an  organization.  But  it  would  be  safe  to 
say  that  such  a  person  is,  if  at  all,  a  Christian  because 
of  influences  which  have  reached  him  through  organized 
Christianity.  The  government  of  the  State  acquires  its 
ability  to  create  its  institutions  of  popular  education, 
its  police  systems,  and  its  various  agencies  of  public 
service,  through  the  aggregated  life  and  support  of  the 
body  of  citizens.  So  Christianity  institutes  its  schools, 
its  presses,  its  agencies  of  philanthropic  service,  its 
ministries  of  spiritual  nurture,  through,  and  in  the 
strength  of,  religious  organizations. 

The  supreme  and  indispensable  human  agency  for  the 
bringing  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  the  earth  is  regener- 
ated individual  lives.  The  Church,  and  the  Christian 
home  nurtured  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  Church,  must 
ever  remain  the  chief  sources  for  the  begetting  and 
developing  of  Christianized  characters.  No  other  agen- 
cies will  ever  substitute  these  twin  and  creative  sources. 

For  the  highest  efficiency  of  the  learned  professions 
and  of  the  technical  arts,  it  has  been  found  an  increas- 
ing necessity  to  establish  special  training  schools.  These 
schools  must  be  equipped  with  every  appliance  of  ad- 
vanced science,  and  must  be  under  the  direction  of 
highest  skill.  Such  schools  are  contributing  immeasurably 
to  the  advancement  and  perfection  of  the  useful  arts. 
If  Christianity  has  a  mission  of  supreme  interest  to 
mankind,  then  this  mission  must  be  studied  and  pro- 
claimed to  the  world  through  special  agencies  ordained 


THE  ABIDING  CHURCH  333 

and  adapted  for  this  high  function.  What  in  the  lesser 
world  of  the  learned  professions  and  the  skilled  arts 
the  training  schools  are,  the  Church  is  and  must  remain 
in  relation  to  the  imperative  teaching  and  work  of  Chris- 
tianity. As  no  other  agency  the  Church  is  ordained 
and  endowed  as  the  supreme  and  authoritative  teacher 
of  the  world  in  all  high  matters  of  spiritual  truth.  From 
its  schools  will  go  forth  those  who  are  to  be  the  peer- 
less expositors  and  interpreters  of  God's  revelation  to 
men.  From  the  training  schools  of  the  Church  will  be 
continuously  recruited  the  ranks  of  those  best  fitted 
for  moral  leadership  in  the  Kingdom  itself,  the  inspired 
prophets  of  the  new  and  growing  moral  age.  Think  of 
the  superlative  truths  with  which  it  is  the  distinctive 
mission  of  the  Church  at  first-hand  to  deal. 

1.  The  Truth  about  God.  God  is  the  supreme  fact  of 
the  universe.  In  human  vocabulary  there  is  the  term 
"atheist."  An  atheist,  if  such  there  really  be,  is  one 
who  believes  in  the  non-existence  of  God.  For  all 
practical  consideration  of  the  question,  he  is  a  negligible 
quantity.  The  overwhelming  and  historic  conviction  of 
the  race  testifies  to  the  Being  of  God.  This  testimony 
receives  most  rational  ratification  from  the  sanest  and 
profoundest  thinkers.  It  is  a  testimony  which  roots 
itself  in  the  deepest  instincts  of  mankind.  It  may  be 
said  that  a  sense  of  God  is  primal  in  human  nature. 

The  mood  of  agnosticism  toward  the  idea  of  God 
does  not,  rationally  considered,  furnish  so  great  ground 
for  wonderment  as  does  that  of  atheism.  Agnosticism 
does  not  deny  the  fact.  It  simply  does  not  know,  and, 
therefore,  finds  no  sufficient  ground  for  intelligent  belief. 


334      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

The  intellectual  environment  of  an  agnostic  has  to  be 
considered.  He  may  be  entirely  honest  in  purpose  and 
not  undevout  of  spirit.  A  review  of  the  religions  of 
history,  while  giving  abundant  proof  that  the  conviction 
of  supreme  and  over-ruling  divinity,  or  divinities,  has 
been  well-nigh  universal,  will  also  show  that  this  con- 
viction has  clothed  itself  in  a  great  variety  of  forms, 
from  the  crudest  fetishism  and  the  grossest  polytheism 
up  to  the  loftiest  monotheism.  The  sense  of  divinity 
has  been  universally  active  in  the  human  breast.  Vision 
and  knowledge  as  to  the  real  character  and  attributes 
of  God  have  been  most  sadly  lacking  in  the  human 
world. 

True  knowledge  of  God  is  dependent  upon  revelation. 
The  most  perfect  revelation  which  even  God  could  give 
of  himself  is  limited  in  its  effect  by  the  receptive  and 
appropriative  capacity  of  the  mind  to  whom  the  revela- 
tion is  addressed.  Hence  God's  method  in  revelation 
has  proceeded  from  simple  and  rudimentary  beginnings, 
advancing  toward  its  fullness  of  expression  by  processes 
of  intellectual  and  moral  education  of  the  race.  In 
the  Bible  itself,  as  chronologically  traced,  there  is  a 
well-nigh  indescribable  progress  from  the  first  crude 
conceptions  of  monotheism  to  the  culminating  revela- 
tion in  Christ  Jesus.  The  process  of  God's  unfolding 
is  still,  and  will  ever  continue  to  be,  active.  The  ex- 
panding moral  sense  and  the  growing  moral  vision  of 
the  race  are  ever  perceiving  and  appropriating  an  enlarg- 
ing knowledge  of  God's  true  character  and  purposes; 
and  this  process  will  ever  continue. 

While  God  as  Creator  has  implanted  universally  in 


THE  ABIDING  CHURCH  335 

the  human  mind  a  sense  of  himself,  it  remains  true  that 
the  Bible  alone  furnishes  the  supreme  record  of  his 
moral  and  spiritual  revelation  of  himself  to  mankind. 
In  this  record  God  is  God  alone.  He  is  the  sole  Creator 
and  supreme  Sovereign  of  the  universe.  He  upholds 
the  physical  systems  by  the  might  of  his  omnipotence. 
He  directs  them  by  the  power  of  an  unerring  will.  But 
the  real  glory  of  God's  sovereignty  is  in  the  moral  uni- 
verse, a  universe  compared  with  which  all  the  physical 
immensities  are  but  as  the  staging  and  scaffolding  to 
the  rising  cathedral.  God's  supreme  glory  is  in  his 
moral  attributes.  He  is  not  only  all-powerful  and  all- 
knowing;  but  he  is  all-holy  and  perfectly  righteous. 
His  holiness  and  righteousness  are  equaled  only  by  his 
love.  God's  supreme  purpose  is  to  people  the  moral 
universe  with  children  begotten,  nurtured,  or  reclaimed, 
into  his  own  moral  likeness.  In  this  conception  there 
is  room  for  majestic  expansiveness  of  idea,  of  illimitable 
outreach  for  the  moral  imagination. 

In  thinking  about  God  in  his  relation  to  the  larger 
physical  universe,  it  would  be  fatuous  either  to  ignore 
or  to  deny  the  infinite  shrouding  of  mystery  that  lies 
over  the  entire  question.  Human  reason  is  staggered 
at  the  thought  of  the  physical  immensities.  It  often 
shrinks  from  accepting  all  the  implications  involved  in 
the  monotheistic  sovereignty  of  the  universe.  It  thinks 
of  man  peopling  his  sand-grain  of  a  world  in  the  infinite 
spaces,  and  it  does  not  seem  probable  that  the  Ruler 
of  infinite  systems  can  give  himself  much  concern  over 
man's  tiny  citizenship. 

Probably  the  real  significance  of  this  mental  tempta- 


336      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

tion,  a  temptation  quite  common  to  the  human  reason^ 
is  in  the  proof  it  furnishes  of  the  real  infantile  character 
as  yet  of  the  human  mind.  This  type  of  reasoning  under- 
estimates both  the  capacity  of  God  and  the  human 
potentialities.  God,  just  because  he  is  the  Infinite,  can 
guide  the  outermost  physical  universe,  and  at  the  same 
time  put  over  his  tiniest  child  the  brooding  care  and 
nurture  of  his  love.  As  for  man,  his  dwelling  place 
in  the  universe  may  be  remote  and  his  playground  small, 
but  if  he  be  God's  child,  he  carries  in  himself  the  po- 
tency of  values  which  have  and  can  have  no  equivalent 
in  all  the  physical  spaces. 

This  is  not  a  field  in  which  any  blatant  skepticism  can 
even  appear  respectable.  Taking  no  advantage  of  what 
to  many  would  seem  only  reasonable  assumptions  of 
religious  faith,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  in  discussing  the 
question  of  God  and  the  universe  no  skeptical  philosophy 
has  been  able  to  suggest  any  more  rational  view  than 
that  set  forth  in  the  Christian-theistic  conception. 

There  is  evidently  some  single  and  uniform  sov- 
ereignty everywhere  regnant  throughout  the  physical 
universe.  As  far  as  the  human  reason  can  follow  the 
path  of  light,  it  finds  not  only  all  suns  and  systems 
composed  of  common  substances,  but  it  finds  all  the 
families  of  worlds  yielding  to  common  laws,  to  the  sway 
of  a  common  scepter.  There  may  be  something  in  all 
this  to  excite  in  the  human  breast  a  sense  of  profound 
wonder.  But  it  should  not  the  less  beget  a  sense  of 
profound  reverence.  A  materialistic  skepticism  furnishes 
no  satisfactory  theory  of  the  universe.  But  a  material- 
istic skepticism  is  not  to-day  of  even  good  repute.     A 


THE  ABIDING  CHURCH  337 

spiritual  philosophy  is  at  the  fore  in  the  world's  best 
thinking.  The  God  of  Christianity  is  big  enough  for 
the  job  of  directing  the  physical  universe,  and  at  present 
there  are  no  pretenders  in  all  the  field  that  can  make 
any  respectable  challenge  of  or  show  of  rivalry  against 
his  supremacy. 

But  when,  as  best  we  may,  we  have  explored  all  outer- 
most fields,  our  chief  and  well-nigh  our  only  interest 
in  God  is  in  his  relations  to  our  human  world.  Here 
our  most  interested  and  most  searching  questions  are 
answered  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  Christ's  special  mis- 
sion to  reveal  God  to  men.  Indeed,  in  his  own  person, 
in  his  character,  his  teachings,  his  dispositions,  his  mo- 
tives, his  services,  his  sacrifices,  he  was  the  living  transla- 
tion to  the  human  heart  and  thought  of  God's  disposi- 
tions and  relations  toward  humanity.  Christ  reveals  God 
as  a  divine  Father  to  all  the  children  of  men.  He  is 
the  God  of  an  ever-watchful  and  loving  providence,  a 
providence  so  minute  in  its  thought  of  us  that  it  fails 
not  to  number  the  very  hairs  of  our  heads. 

Christ's  revelation  of  God  makes  him  a  Being  not 
less  sovereign,  not  less  holy,  not  less  intolerant  of  sin, 
but  a  Being  underneath  whose  robes  of  justice,  and  at 
the  very  heart  of  whose  love  there  dwell  a  spirit  of  for- 
giveness for  his  sinning  children,  a  spirit  of  sacrifice 
that  will  stop  at  no  costs  for  the  winning  to  reconcilia- 
tion of  those  who  have  alienated  themselves  from  his  love. 

Such  are  some  of  the  qualities  of  God  as  set  forth  in 
Christ's  revelation.  In  the  very  measure  in  which  these 
questions  are  apprehended  will  it  be  seen  that  a  knowl- 
edge of   God,  a   knowledge  of   his   will   and  purposes 


338      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

toward  mankind,  is  a  question  of  supreme  human  im- 
port. No  subjects  should  so  fully  challenge  human 
interest  and  study  as  a  right  understanding  of  these 
truths. 

In  a  previous  chapter  I  have  dwelt  specifically  upon 
some  of  the  great  truths  for  which  the  historic  Church 
has  stood.  In  this  relation  I  only  purpose  to  emphasize 
the  indispensable  mission  of  the  Church  in  enforcing 
attention  to  these  truths  and  in  keeping  them  ever 
alive  in  human  thought  and  conviction.  The  funda- 
mental truths  of  Christianity  have  their  source  in  God. 
They,  of  all  truths,  are  most  vitally  related  to  human 
welfare  and  destiny.  The  Church  is  God's  ordained 
agency  for  the  exposition  and  proclamation  of  these 
truths  to  the  ages. 

2.  Calvary.  It  is  not  needful  here  to  attempt  a  defi- 
nite theory  or  philosophy  of  Calvary.  Nothing  can  be 
clearer  than  that  the  whole  enacted  and  indescribable 
tragedy  was  something  necessitated  on  account  of  sin. 
In  a  series  of  divine  movements,  all  concentrated  upon 
man's  salvation  from  sin,  the  cross  was  a  supreme  man- 
ifestation. The  cross  will  ever  stand  in  human  history 
as  the  superlative  object  lesson  of  God's  love  for  man. 
Whatever  else  it  may  have  meant,  it  would  seem  that 
even  God  himself  could  give  no  more  vivid  or  impressive 
demonstration  to  human  view  of  the  divine  earnest- 
ness in  seeking  man's  redemption  from  the  consequences 
of  sin  than  is  furnished  in  the  tragedy  of  Calvary. 

This  one  measureless  sacrifice  carries  with  it  the 
pledge  that  all  divine  resources,  if  needs  be,  are  sub- 
ject to  requisition  in  order  to  effect  man's  reconciliation 


THE  ABIDING  CHURCH  339 

to  God.  Calvary  is  God's  bond  that  he  will  do  all 
divinely  possible  to  save  his  human  child.  If  after 
Calvary  any  soul  is  lost,  it  will  be  because  such  soul 
insists  on  using  its  sovereign  decision  for  self-destruction. 
I  do  not  tarry  to  discuss  the  fact  of  man's  sinfulness. 
The  human  sense  of  sin  is  universal.  The  fact  of  sin 
is  the  tragedy  of  the  race.  All  history  asserts  man's 
helplessness  of  self -emancipation  from  its  bondage.  His 
only  salvation  is  in  divinely  proffered  help.  It  will 
always  remain  one  of  the  chief  functions  and  obliga- 
tions of  the  Church  to  herald  to  the  world  an  awaken- 
ing and  alarming  message  in  exposure  of  sin;  always 
its  high  function  to  direct  human  thought  to  Calvary, 
where  may  be  seen  God's  most  impressive  revelation  of 
the  Lamb  of  God  who  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world. 

3.  The  Holy  Spirit.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  continuous 
Teacher  and  Inspirer  of  the  Church.  From  the  char- 
acter and  teachings  of  Christ  he  is  ever  unfolding  new 
meaning  and  enlarging  spiritual  application  for  the 
studious  and  devout  seekers  after  truth.  The  Holy 
Spirit  is  God  working  in  all  the  processes  of  spiritual 
enlightenment  and  moral  growth.  He  is  preparing  the 
hearts  of  men  and  of  civilizations  for  the  final  coming 
of  Christ's  kingdom.  In  the  field  of  the  Spirit's  work 
there  is  room  for  exhaustless  study,  and  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  that  work  there  is  an  infinite  wealth  of 
material  for  Christian  teaching.  The  Spirit-inspired 
Church  must  ever  hold  in  the  world  the  distinctive 
function  of  translating  the  mind  of  the  Spirit  to  the 
thoughts  of  men. 

4.  Christian  Living.     The  Church  must  remain  a  chief 


34o      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

training  school  for  practical  Christian  living.  Saint 
Paul  had  a  habit  of  crowding  into  his  epistles  many 
precepts  for  the  Christian  life.  He  discoursed  upon  the 
relations  of  husbands  and  wives,  of  parents  and  chil- 
dren, of  masters  and  servants.  So  the  Church  is  to  be 
the  expounder  of  Christianity  in  its  application  to  the 
practical  everyday  needs  and  life  of  its  subjects.  It 
is  its  teaching  function  and  responsibility  to  give  a 
rational  construction  of  the  uses  of  prayer,  to  expound 
the  offices  of  faith  in  the  Christian  life,  to  impress  upon 
all  the  necessity  and  values  of  ethical  living. 

The  Church  should  be  a  herald  for  high  ideals  of 
honor  and  equity  in  business  life.  It  should  be  a  clear 
and  forcible  expounder  of  the  high  moralities  which 
should  rule  in  the  home,  in  society,  and  in  politics.  It 
should  impress  upon  all  men  the  serious  gravity  of  living, 
the  real  stewardship  of  life,  the  Christlike  lesson  that 
life's  noblest  ends  can  be  realized  only  in  a  spirit  01 
service  and  helpfulness  to  the  world. 

The  Church  should  lay  a  full  and  cheering  emphasis 
upon  the  optimisms  of  the  Christian  faith.  When  Saint 
Paul  was  in  the  Roman  prison  under  sentence  of  death 
he  wrote  to  the  Philippian  church,  declaring  his  own 
joy  that  he  was  counted  worthy  to  be  made  an  offering 
in  their  behalf.  His  position  would  not  seem  to  be 
conducive  to  joy,  but  in  this  very  epistle  he  repeats  over 
and  over  the  Christian  privilege  of  rejoicing.  Among  his 
closing  words  are  these:  "Rejoice  in  the  Lord;  and  again 
I  say,  rejoice."  Christianity  comes  with  a  great  wealth 
of  cheer,  of  hope,  of  spiritual  uplifting  to  the  world's 
burden-bearers,  to  the  weary,  the  weak,  and  the  depressed. 


THE  ABIDING  CHURCH  341 

The  life  of  the  Church  ought  always  to  be  buoyant 
and  songful  in  the  joy  of  Christian  inspirations.  It  owes 
this  constant  attitude  to  the  wayworn  pilgrims  whose 
feet  it  is  pointing  to  the  gateways  of  the  blessed  life. 
Christianity  does  not  promise  to  its  subjects  exemption 
from  toil,  or  trial,  or  even  sorrow.  But  it  does  promise 
to  every  obedient  disciple,  whatever  his  earthly  lot,  sus- 
taining grace  in  the  full  measure  of  his  needs.  It  should 
not  be  a  chief  aim  for  the  Christian  to  pray  for  deliv- 
erance from  trial.  The  good  God  may  be  preparing  the 
best  possible  things  for  us  in  the  very  processes  of  our 
trials.  The  diamond  receives  its  finest  polish  for  the 
king's  diadem  by  the  most  merciless  grinding  upon  the 
lapidary's  stone.  So  the  Word  tells  us  that  they  who 
shall  rank  most  conspicuously  among  the  finally  glorified, 
those  who  shall  6tand  nearest  the  throne,  are  they  who 
shall  have  come  up  through  great  tribulation. 

There  is  a  distinctive  mission  which  it  is  difficult  to 
see  how  any  other  agency  than  the  Church  can  ever 
as  fittingly  discharge.  This  is  a  ministry  to  the  sick 
and  to  the  bereaved.  When  people  are  old  or  sick,  and 
are  far  down  the  slopes  toward  the  great  divide,  they 
need  consolations  other  than  any  which  are  earth-born. 
It  is  a  blessed  thing  in  these  closing  stages  of  the  journey 
to  receive  from  sympathetic  hearts  and  skillful  lips 
divine  consolations.  And  if  when  are  hushed  "the  last 
low  whispers  of  the  dying"  there  be  no  messenger  from 
heaven  to  the  smitten  living,  how  sad  and  forlorn  the 
situation!  It  is  in  life's  extreme  emergencies  that  the 
Church  may  impart  a  ministry  priceless  in  its  sym- 
pathies and  inspirations.     The  Church  has  an  invaluable 


342      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

ministry  for  life  in  all  the  journey  from  birth  to  death. 
The  commission  for  this  ministry  will  never  in  time  be 
recalled. 

5.  Immortality.  One  of  the  chief  doctrinal  missions  of 
the  Church  will  be  ever  to  keep  alive  in  human  con- 
victions and  hopes  the  revelation  of  immortality.  With- 
out the  faith  of  immortality,  Christianity,  however 
otherwise  beautiful  and  inspirational,  would  be  bereft 
of  that  which  gives  it  chief  significance  and  divinest 
values.  Christianity  is  a  religion  with  eternity  in  its 
message.  If  human  faith  shall  lose  sight  of  the  super- 
lative motives  and  inspirations  of  this  revelation,  then, 
whatever  else  comes  into  view,  there  is  hidden  from  life 
the  very  crown  of  its  possibilities,  and  man  is  blind  to 
the  supreme  and  fadeless  values  which  God  purposes  for 
his  destiny. 

The  Kingdom  upon  which  Christ  so  habitually  dwelt 
is  indeed  for  this  world.  It  is,  so  far  as  our  world-history 
is  concerned,  the  one  supreme  goal  toward  which  God 
is  directing  the  moral  and  spiritual  activities  of  the 
race.  It  is  God's  purpose  that  the  very  earth  itself 
shall  be  transformed  into  an  abode  of  righteousness, 
that  it  shall  finally  be  something  far  better  than  the 
lost  Eden  of  the  Genesis  story.  Toward  this  consum- 
mation there  are  now  set  great  and  increasing  trends 
in  the  social  and  moral  movements  in  history.  There  will 
come  a  day  somewhere,  when,  considering  the  inevitable 
limitations  of  human  existence,  this  world  in  its  physical, 
intellectual,  social,  and  moral  conditions,  will  be  as  perfect 
a  world  as  God  can  produce  through  a  regenerated  hu- 
manity. 


THE  ABIDING  CHURCH  343 

But  when  finally,  in  that  good  age  which  has  filled  the 
vision  of  prophets,  this  world  shall  have  come  to  its 
best,  it  will  then  be  no  more  than  a  kindergarten  in 
God's  great  plans  for  human  destiny.  The  final,  the 
consummated,  Kingdom  toward  which  Christianity  works 
will  be  realized  in  climes  whose  atmospheres  have  never 
been  touched  by  contagion,  and,  whose  landscapes  bear 
no  marks  of  graves.  God's  moral  purposes  for  this 
world  embrace  infinite  improvements,  unmeasured  trans- 
formations, for  human  betterment.  But  in  all  the  divine 
scheme  for  this  human  world,  there  is  nowhere  any 
promise  that  man  shall  not  die,  that  he  shall  be  exempt 
from  accident,  that  he  shall  not  know  the  pains  and 
weakness  of  disease,  the  sorrows  of  bereavement. 

When  this  world  is  made  as  perfect  as  possible  by 
the  installment  of  all  sanitary  science,  and  by  the  reg- 
nancy  of  highest  moral  living,  it  will  then  fall  immeas- 
urably short  of  that  world  where  God  shall  have  wiped 
all  tears  from  the  eyes  of  his  people,  where  there  shall 
be  no  more  death,  neither  sorrow,  nor  crying,  neither 
shall  there  be  any  more  pain;  because  the  former  things 
are  passed  away. 

The  ideal  world-kingdom  is  at  best  but  a  transitional 
stage  between  much  that  is  now  evil  and  perishing  to 
that  which  is  perfect  and  eternal.  A  vivid  faith  in 
Christian  immortality  is  of  deepest  necessity  to  the  pass- 
ing life  of  men.  The  world-kingdom,  in  its  perfection, 
can  be  but  gradually  approached.  Its  goal  may  be 
far  distant.  In  the  meantime  multitudes  of  God's  people 
in  this  world  are  struggling  with  poverty,  with  priva- 
tion, are  pressed  upon  by  immeasurable  limitations,  by 


344      CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  NEW  AGE 

lack  of  opportunity,  are  burdened  with  toil,  infirmities, 
and  disease.  These  are  the  true  heirs  of  God's 
redemptive  grace.  He  does  not  mean  that  in  his  larger 
scheme  of  being  these  shall  in  any  measure  be  robbed 
of  their  birthright.  For  them  the  faith  of  immortality 
holds  infinite  compensations. 

For  the  toilsome  children  of  mortality,  for  the  foot- 
worn and  weary  pilgrims  of  time,  the  Church  will  ever 
have  a  high  and  divine  mission  in  proclaiming  a  clime 
of  abiding  rest  for  the  weary,  of  perfect  health  for  those 
now  sick,  a  land  where  labor  shall  be  an  endless  exhilara- 
tion, a  land  of  plenty  forevermore,  a  land  in  which  age 
and  decay  shall  give  place  to  the  beauty  and  vigor  of 
undying  youthfulness. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


345 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

In  addition  to  the  following  volumes  as  herewith  named,  I  have  had 
occasion  to  examine  several  topics  as  treated  in  standard  books  of  ref- 
erence such  as  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  the  Encyclopedia  of  Religion 
and  Ethics,  and  other  works  of  acknowledged  merit. 

Ames,  Edward  Scribner.     The  Psychology  of  Religious  Experience. 

Bacon,  Benjamin  Wisner.     The  Fourth  Gospel  in  Research  and  Debate. 

Ballard,  Frank.     Christian  Essentials. 

Benson,  Allan  L.     The  Truth  About  Socialism. 

Boothe,  Meyrick.     Rudolph  Eucken. 

Boutroux,  E.     Science  and  Religion  in  Contemporary  Philosophy. 

Bowne,  Borden  Parker.     Personality:  The  Essence  of  Religion. 

Brace,  Charles  Loring.     Gesta  Christi. 

Bricker,  Garland  A.     Solving  the  Country  Church  Problem. 

Brooks,  John  Graham.     The  Social  Unrest. 

Buckle,  Henry  Thomas.     History  of  Civilization  in  England. 

Cairns,  D.  S.     Christianity  in  the  Modern  World. 

Carlile,  John  C.     Christian  Union  in  Social  Service. 

Chapman,  Edward  Mortimer.     English  Literature  in  Account  with  Re- 
ligion. 

Clarke,  William  Newton.     The  Christian  Doctrine  of  God. 

Clow,  W.  M.     The  Cross  in  Christian  Experience;  Christ  in  the  Social 
Order. 

Coe,  George  Albert.     The  Religion  of  a  Mature  Mind. 

Curnock,  Nehemiah,  Editor.     The  Journal  of  John  Wesley. 

Cunningham,  W.     Christianity  and  Social  Questions. 

Davidson,  A.  B.     The  Theology  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Davison,  W.  T.     The  Indwelling  Spirit. 

Deissmann,  Adolph.     Light  from  the  Ancient  East. 

Denney,  James.     The  Atonement  and  the  Modern  Mind. 

Dickinson,    Charles   Henry.     The   Christian   Reconstruction   of   Modern 
Society. 

Dole,  Charles  F.     The  Theology  of  Civilization. 

Downey,  David  G.,  Editor.     Militant  Methodism. 

Driver,  Samuel  Rolls.     Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. 

Eiselen,  Frederick  C.     Prophecy  and  the  Prophets. 

Eucken,  Rudolf.     The  Problem  of  Human  Life. 

347 


348  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Fairbairn,  Andrew  Martin.     The  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion, 

The  Place  of  Christ  in  Modern  Theology. 
Finney,  Ross  L.     Personal  Religion  and  the  Social  Awakening. 
Flick,  Alexander  Clarence.     The  Rise  of  the  Mediaeval  Church. 
Forsyth,  P.  T.     The  Person  and  Place  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Fourth  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference. 
Gilbert,  George  H.     Interpretation  of  the  Bible. 
Gill  and  Pinchot.     The  Country  Church. 
Gladden,  Washington.     Christianity  and  Socialism. 
Glasgow  University  Lectures.     Religion  and  the  Modern  Mind. 
Glover,  T.  R.     The  Christian  Tradition  and  Its  Fulfillment. 
Gray,  George  Buchanan.     Critical  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament. 
Grist,  Alexander.     The  Historic  Christ  in  the  Faith  of  Today. 
Hall,  Thomas  C.     Social  Solutions. 
Halstead,  William  Riley.     A  Cosmic  View  of  Religion. 
Hausmann,  E.     Eucken  and  Bergson. 
Hill,  David  J.     The  Social  Influence  of  Christianity. 
Hillquit,  Morris.     Socialism  Summed  Up. 
Howerton,  James  R.     The  Church  and  Social  Reforms. 
Keeble,  Samuel  E.     The  Social  Teachings  of  the  Bible. 
King,  Basil.     The  Way  Home. 
King,    Henry   Churchill.     The   Moral   and   Religious   Challenge   of   Our 

Times;  Reconstruction  in  Theology;  Theology  and  the  Social  Con- 
sciousness. 
King,  William  Lester.     Investment  and  Achievement. 
Knudson,  Albert  C.     The  Beacon  Lights  of  Prophecy. 
Lecky,  W.  E.  H.     History  of  European  Morals. 
Lee,  Gerald  Stanley.     Crowds. 

Loofs,  Friedrich.     What  is  the  Truth  About  Jesus  Christ? 
Mathews,  Shailer.     The  Church  and  the  Changing  Order;  The  Gospel 

and  the  Modern  Man. 
Moore,  Edward  C.     Christian  Thought  Since  Kant. 
Moulton,  James  Hope.     Religions  and  Religion. 
Nash,  Henry  S.     Genesis  of  the  Social  Conscience;  The  History  of  the 

Higher  Criticism. 
Orr,  James.     The  Faith  of  a  Modern  Christian. 
Peabody,   Francis   Greenwood.     Jesus   Christ  and   the   Social   Question; 

Jesus  Christ  and  Christian  Character. 
Peake,  Arthur  S.     The  Bible — Its  Origin,  Its  Significance,  Its  Abiding 

Worth. 
Plantz,  Samuel.     The  Church  and  the  Social  Problem. 
Rashdall,  Hastings.     Philosophy  and  Religion. 


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349 


Rauschenbusch,  Walter.  Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis;  Christian- 
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Russell,  Lord.     Collections  and  Recollections. 

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of  the  Fourth  Gospel. 

Schweitzer,  Albert.     The  Quest  of  the  Historic  Jesus. 

Seven  Oxford  Men.     Foundations. 

Shotwell,  James  T.     The  Religious  Revolution  of  Today. 

Sims,  P.  Marion.     What  Must  the  Church  Do  to  Be  Saved? 

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Smith,  Samuel  George.     Democracy  and  the  Church. 

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INDEX 


351 


INDEX 


Abbot,  Ezra,  quoted,  89. 

America,  influence  of  Church  in 
early  history  of,  25;  contribution 
of  scholarship  of,  to  biblical  criti- 
cism, 93;  separation  of  Church 
and  state  in,  101;  educational 
system  of,  appraised,  103,  106, 
logff. ;  gravity  of  neglect  of  reli- 
gious education  in,  114;  national 
wealth  of,  145,  162;  Christian 
Church  most  dominant  institu- 
tion in,  183;  status  of  prohibition 
in,  321. 

American  Board  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, organization  of,  214. 

Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  influence  of, 
on  biblical  interpretation,  82. 

Arethusa,  105. 

Argentina  and  Chile,  peace  treaty 
between,  313. 

Aristotle,  251. 

Assisi,  Francis,  266. 

Athanasian  creed,  9. 

Augustine,  9;  the  greatest  Christian 
mind  of  his  century,  10;  early 
spiritual  training  of,  105. 

Bashfords,  240. 

Basil,  104. 

Bauer,  92. 

Benson,  Allan  L.,  quoted,  146. 

Bible,  causes  of  enforced  changes  in 
interpretation  of,  64;  scientific 
knowledge  to  aid  in  interpretation 
of,  76;  erroneously  interpreted  in 
earlier  ages,  83 ;  scientific  criticism 
of,  inevitable,  87;  needs  only 
clear  opportunity  to  deliver  its 


own  message,  91;  effect  of  scien- 
tific criticism  on,  98;  furnishes 
supreme  record  of  God's  moral 
and  spiritual  revelation  of  him- 
self to  mankind,  335. 

Biblical  criticism,  Principal  A.  M. 
Fairbairn  on,  80;  Professor  James 
Hope  Moulton  on,  80;  Professor 
Arthur  S.  Peake  on,  80;  some 
historic  phases  of,  82ff . ;  two  lines 
of  development  of,  88ff.;  Ezra 
Abbot  on,  89;  indebted  to  Ger- 
man nation  for,  91;  effect  of,  on 
German  people,  92;  contributed 
to  by  various  nations,  93;  no 
longer  in  control  of  destructive 
minds,  94;  present  status  of,  94, 
95;  results  of,  in  Old  Testament, 
96;  in  New  Testament,  97;  high 
value  of,  98. 

Bibliotheca  Sacra,  quoted,  37. 

Bishop,  Mrs.  Isabella  Bird,  on  mis- 
sions, 217. 

Booth,  General,  240. 

Bowne,  Dr.  Borden  Parker,  quoted, 
4,  182;  cited,  317,  318;  quoted, 
326. 

Bricker,  Professor  Garland  A., 
"Solving  the  Country  Church 
Problem"  by,  quoted,  34,  35,  36. 

British  Blue  Book  of  1904,  quoted, 
223. 

Brooklyn,  results  of  church  canvass 
in  one  ward  of,  30. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  on  foreign  mis- 
sions, 216. 

Brotherhood  of  man,  significance  of 
doctrine  of,  267 ;  enthronement  in 


353 


354 


INDEX 


human  thought  of  spirit  of,  su- 
preme task  of  a  Christian  civiliza- 
tion, 287;  removal  of  animosities 
prevailing  between  capital  and 
labor  will  open  wide  the  door  for, 
309;  is  only  philosophy  which  fits 
need  of  growing  modern  world, 
316. 

Bushnell,  Dr.  Charles  J.,  cited,  142. 

Business,  investment  in,  a  legiti- 
mate use  of  wealth,  136,  294;  un- 
ethical management  of  many  lines 
of,  272,  273;  Church  should  be  a 
herald  for  high  ideals  of  honor  and 
equity  in,  340. 

Cairns,  Dr.  D.  S.,  "Christianity  in 
the  Modern  World"  by,  quoted, 
287. 

Calvary,  the  superlative  object  les- 
son of  God's  love  for  man,  338- 

339- 

Capitalism,  feeling  of  poor  toward, 
46;  relation  of,  to  labor,  138, 
I46ff.,  302  ff.;  message  of  Church 
to,  201;  Christianization  of,  a 
supreme  problem  of  Christianity, 
202;  increasingly  impelled  by 
spirit  of  philanthropy,  292;  call 
for  service  heard  and  heeded  by, 
293i  295;  opportunity  for  per- 
sonal service  in,  298;  in  its  pres- 
ent form,  a  menace  to  the  very 
life  of  the  republic,  304. 

Carey,  William,  213,  240. 

Carlile,  J.  C,  quoted,  287. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  313. 

Catholicism,  62;  parorhial  schools 
of,  102,  114. 

Celsus,  185. 

Chile  and  Argentina,  peace  treaty 
between,  313. 

China,  an  example  of  conservatism, 
61;  the  awakening  of,  288,  289. 


Christ,  Personality  of,  6;  imper- 
fectly understood  by  companions, 
7;  inadequately  measured  by 
creeds,  10;  increasing  influence  of, 
11-13;  subjected  to  tests  of 
science,  1 1 ;  critical  investigation 
in  Germany  of  life  of,  14;  satis- 
faction of  world's  need  in  gospel 
of,  15;  mission  of,  17;  revealed  in 
lives  of  his  followers,  17;  friend  of 
poor,  43,  190;  methods  of  teach- 
ing, 68;  attitude  of,  toward  chil- 
dren, 104;  teachings  of,  concern- 
ing wealth,  135,  137;  belief  of 
Christian  Church  in,  186;  put 
divine  seal  on  sacredness  of  fam- 
ily life,  191;  mission  of  Holy 
Spirit  to  fulfill  purpose  of  and 
interpret,  230,  236;  the  most  ex- 
alted servant  of  humanity,  241; 
ideals  of,  of  increasing  power, 
242 ;  the  one  purpose  in  gospel  of, 
to  bring  man  into  real  sonship 
with  God,  246;  the  ideal,  into 
whose  likeness  God  proposes  to 
bring  all  men,  255;  gospel  of,  a 
gospel  of  immortality,  256;  gospel 
of,  most  fruitful  source  of  ideals 
of  modern  prophets,  278 ;  attitude 
of  organized  labor  toward,  303; 
principle  of  cooperation  in  har- 
mony with  ideals  of,  308;  prin- 
ciples announced  by,  continu- 
ally expanding  in  adaptation  to 
world's  new  knowledge,  318; 
world's  humanity  has  no  hope 
save  in  gospel  of,  324;  the  King- 
dom the  all-inclusive  end  and  aim 
of  gospel  preached  by,  327;  his 
conception  of  Kingdom,  329;  mis- 
sion of,  to  reveal  God  to  men,  337. 

Christendom,  distinctive  concep- 
tion of  missions  in,  of  late  ex- 
pression, 212. 


INDEX 


355 


Christianity,  influence  and  power 
of,  5,  198;  measure  of  achieve- 
ment, 24;  a  missionary  religion, 
25;  retarded  by  petty  denomina- 
tionalism,  26;  the  problems  of 
the  city,  the  final  test  of,  27; 
relation  of,  to  poor,  44;  early, 
burdened  with  superstition,  61; 
fairest  opportunity  in  a  rationally 
ordered  society,  68;  living  Christ 
basis  of  growing  power  of,  72; 
science  an  ally  of,  73;  value  set 
by,  upon  spiritual  training  of 
childhood,  104;  elimination  of  re- 
.  ligious  instruction  from  public 
school  system  an  injustice  against, 
106;  socialism  not  a  substitute  for, 
177;  enfranchised  laboring  classes, 
190;  ennobling  influence  of,  on 
status  of  woman,  191;  teachings 
of,  concerning  wealth,  193;  Chris- 
tianization  of  capitalism  a  su- 
preme problem  of,  202 ;  spread  by 
persecution,  212;  mission  of,  to 
the  bodies  as  well  as  to  the  souls  of 
men,  224;  hampered  by  pagan- 
ism in  early  ages,  233 ;  sacredness 
of  human  life,  a  new  ideal  intro- 
duced by,  247ff.;  a  leveler  of 
caste,  250;  genuine,  characterized 
by  active  sympathy  with  human 
needs,  265;  part  of  mission  of,  to 
remove  causes  from  which  world's 
needs  arise,  266;  some  of  the 
prophets  of  social,  269;  problems 
confronting  social,  270,  271;  pres- 
ent-day revival  a  translation  of, 
into  terms  of  modern-world 
thought,  282;  problems  confront- 
ing present-day,  are  world  prob- 
lems, 288-290;  sufficient  to  meet 
social  and  moral  needs  of  all 
mankind,  291;  real  spirit  of,  ex- 
emplified among  missionary  work- 


ers, 310;  spirit  of  federation  one 
of  largest  prophecy  for,  311;  to 
become  the  universal  and  final 
religion,  318;  supreme  appeal  of, 
is  to  the  divine  and  worshipful 
in  man,  319,  320;  a  chief  function 
of,  to  produce  Christlike  men, 
327;  fundamental  truths  of,  have 
their  source  in  God,  338;  prom- 
ises not  exemption  from  trial,  but 
sustaining  grace,  341. 

Christian  living,  Church  a  chief 
training  school  for  practical,  340. 

Chrysostom,  early  spiritual  training 
of,  105. 

Church,  Christian,  a  success  or 
failure,  24;  place  of,  in  American 
history,  25;  present  status  of,  in 
America,  26;  status  of,  in  cities, 
29 ;  causes  of  decline  in  rural  com- 
munities, 3 iff.;  Professor  Garland 
A.  Bricker  on  country,  34,  35,  36; 
attitude  of  poor  toward,  44ff.,  150, 
203;  supported  and  attended 
largely  by  privileged  classes,  45; 
quality  of  mission  work  of,  45; 
labor  out  of  harmony  with,  47ff., 
303 ;  mutual  need  of  laboring  man 
and,  49,  50;  theological  teaching 
of,  in  early  ages,  83;  rule  of,  in 
Middle  Ages,  beneficent,  84; 
mother  of  popular  education,  106; 
mutual  need  of  professional 
classes  and,  122;  should  stand  for 
highest  truth,  123;  character  of 
ministry  of  vital  importance  to, 
125;  needs  adequately  trained 
ministry,  128;  undue  influence  of 
wealth  in,  153;  influence  of,  183; 
growth  of,  184,  185;  vitalized  by 
an  indwelling  divinity,  185,  187; 
belief  of,  in  Jesus  Christ,  186; 
some  fundamental  teachings  of, 
187,  188;  transforming  influence 


356 


INDEX 


of,  upon  institutions  of  society, 
189;  friend  of  poor  and  toiling 
men,  190;  high  place  accorded 
woman  by,  192;  humane  reforms 
inspired  by,  194;  debt  of  civiliza- 
tion to,  197;  critical  situation  con- 
fronting present-day,  199;  mes- 
sage of,  to  the  capitalist,  201; 
alienation  of  labor  and,  an  im- 
measurable disaster,  204;  must 
acquire  secret  and  power  of 
working  unity,  205,  311;  blind- 
ness of,  as  to  its  missionary  duty, 
212;  missionary  message  to,  calls 
for  largest  consecration  of  gifts 
and  service,  218;  promise  of  Holy 
Spirit  not  fully  appropriated  in 
faith  of,  229;  new  moral  educa- 
tion arising  in,  268 ;  characteristics 
of  future,  282 ;  distinction  between 
"Kingdom"  and,  327,  328;  some 
achievements  of,  in  preparing  for 
coming  of  Kingdom,  330;  is  or- 
ganization through  which  Chris- 
tianity can  discharge  its  mission 
most  efficiently,  331;  superlative 
truths  with  which  it  is  distinctive 
mission  of,  to  deal,  333~342- 

Churchill,  Winston,  "The  Modern 
Quest  for  a  Religion"  by,  cited, 
15;  "The  Inside  of  the  Cup"  by, 
cited,  151. 

Church  Missionary  Society  of  Lon- 
don, 213. 

Cicero,  quoted,  189. 

City,  controlling  power  of  modern 
civilization,  27;  characteristics  of 
ideal,  28;  present-day  evils  of,  28; 
status  of  Christian  Church  in,  29. 

Civilization,  requirements  of  an 
ideal,  102;  debt  of,  to  Christian 
Church,  189-194,  197;  supreme 
task  of  Christian,  287;  capitalism 
a  passing  phase  in,  304;  greatest 


menace  to  present,  warfare  be- 
tween   wealth    and    production, 

304. 

Clement,  quoted,  190. 

Clow,  Dr.  W.  M.,  "Christ  in  the 
Social  Order"  by,  quoted,  135, 
156. 

Coe,  Professor  George  A.,  quoted, 
296. 

Conservatism,  a  controlling  force  in 
thought  and  conduct,  61,  62. 

Cooperation,  instead  of  competi- 
tion, 287;  a  word  of  great  promise 
for  the  future,  304;  principle  of, 
in  harmony  with  ideals  of  Jesus 
Christ,  308. 

Cooperative  developments,  extent 
of,  307;  Aneurin  Williams  on,  307; 
Professor  Walter  Rauschenbusch 
on,  308. 

Copernicus,  169. 

Corliss  engine,  the  evolution  of  the, 

65. 

Corporations,  monopolistic,  140- 
142;  relation  of,  to  politics  and 
legislation,  144;  advantage  of, over 
labor,  I46ff.    See  Capitalism. 

Country,  status  of  Church  in,  30, 
33;  changed  conditions  in,  31, 32; 
inadequate  support  of  Church  and 
ministry  in,  35ff. 

Crane,  Dr.  Frank,  quoted,  264. 

Cross,  the  measure  of  God's  invest- 
ment in  the  interests  of  man,  254, 
338;  testifies  to  infinite  values  in 
human  nature,  255. 

Crow,  Carl,  cited,  213;  quoted,  217, 
223,  224. 

Custom,  tyranny  of,  58,  232. 

Darwin,  121,  169. 
Davison,  W.  T.,  quoted,  228. 
Declaration  of  the  Official  Curric- 
ulum from   the  Volksschulen  of 


INDEX 


357 


the  Kingdom  of  Wurtemburg, 
quoted,  107. 

Denmark,  cooperative  develop- 
ments in,  307. 

Dennis,  Dr.  James  S.,  quoted,  224. 

Dominations,  number  of,  in  Amer- 
ican Protestantism,  26;  multipli- 
cation of,  a  blight  on  rural 
churches,  33,  129;  need  of  a 
working  unity  among,  205,  207, 

3". 

Dickens's  Christmas  story  of 
Scrooge,  quoted,  299,  300. 

Dickinson,  Charles  Henry,  quoted, 
42,  134,  244;  "The  Christian  Re- 
construction of  Modern  Life"  by, 
cited,  319. 

Driver,  S.  R.,  93. 

Edison,  253. 

Education,  secularization  of,  a  de- 
structive foe  to  spirituality,  101; 
relation  of,  to  effective  ministry, 
I25ff.;  new  moral,  arising  in 
Church,  268.  See  Religious  Edu- 
cation. 

England,  cooperative  developments 
in,  307. 

Erasmus,  84. 

Eucken,  Rudolf,  the  philosophy  of, 
3i7,3i8. 

Evolution,  teachings  of,  with  ref- 
erence to  laws  of  conduct,  57; 
goal  of,  a  universe  peopled  with 
moral  and  spiritual  intelligence, 
258. 

Fairbairn,  Principal  A.  M.,  quoted, 
80;  "The  Philosophy  of  the  Chris- 
tian Religion"  by,  cited,  317. 

Faith,  relation  of  science  to,  69. 

Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of 
Christ  in  America,  the,  quoted, 
100;  cited,  115. 


Federation,  spirit  of,  in  mission 
fields,  a  summons  to  home 
churches,  309,  310;  spirit  of,  one 
of  largest  prophecy  for  Chris- 
tianity, 31 .1. 

France,  93,  308. 

Francke,    August    Hermann,    real 

founder  of  public  school,  105. 

Fraser,  Sir  Andrew  H.  L.,  quoted, 
224. 

Frederick  the  Great,  105. 

French  Revolution,  304. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  272. 

General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  resolution  of,  in  1796, 
concerning  foreign  missions,  214. 

Germany,  critical  investigation  in, 
of  life  of  Christ,  14;  indebted  to, 
for  biblical  criticism,  92;  pro- 
vision for  religious  training  in 
educational  system  of,  107,  108; 
cooperative  developments  in,  307. 

Gibbon's  "Decline  and  Fall"  cited, 
184,  249. 

Gill,  Charles  Otis,  38. 

God,  the  Church  the  expounder  of 
the  will  of,  concerning  man,  188; 
Holy  Spirit  is,  in  the  world  work- 
ing mission  and  kingdom  of  Jesus 
Christ,  229;  Old  Testament  view 
of,  245;  New  Testament  view  of, 
246;  purpose  of,  in  man,  25 iff.; 
transcendent  meaning  of  cross 
centers  in  interest  of,  in  hu- 
manity, 254,  338;  real  glory  of,  is 
moral,  256;  evolution  has  no 
meaning  without,  258;  brother- 
hood of  man,  a  twin  doctrine  to 
Fatherhood  of,  267;  patiently 
working  out  his  purpose,  268; 
the  rights  of  the  children  of,  to 
His  wealth,  305;  the  truth  about, 
333-338.    See  Holy  Spirit. 


358 


INDEX 


Golden  Rule,  contains  final  solution 
of  misadjustments  of  the  world, 
242. 

Goldsmith,  "Deserted  Village," 
quoted,  130. 

Greece,  196. 

Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  104. 

Hall,  Gordon,  214. 

Halstead,  Dr.  William  R.,  quoted, 
100;  "A  Cosmic  View  of  Reli- 
gion" by,  quoted,  102. 

Hardie,  Keir,  "Serfdom  to  Social- 
ism" by,  quoted,  172. 

Harrison,  H.  S.,  "V.  V.'s  Eyes"  by, 
cited,  151. 

Hague  Court  of  Arbitration,  315. 

Heathendom,  absence  in,  of  better 
qualities  of  Christian  civilization, 

195- 

Higher  criticism,   88;   defined,  91; 

acceptance  of,  93;  influence  of, 

compared  with  that  of  secularized 

education,  101. 

Hill,  David  J.,  quoted,  4.  1 

Hillquit,   Morris,  quoted,  42,    136, 

158,  159.  I7ii  T73- 

Hofmann,  quoted,  18. 

Holland,  93. 

Holy  Spirit,  mission  of,  229,  236; 
supreme  task  of,  to  gain  moral 
supremacy  over  the  individual, 
231;  test  of  Spirit's  reign,  that 
one's  life  shall  show  conformity 
to  law  of,  232;  larger  relation  of, 
to  the  world,  232;  work  of,  in 
spiritual  enlightenment  and  trans- 
formation of  human  society, 
234fL;  advance  of  race  under 
guidance  of,  239;  the  continuous 
Teacher  and  Inspirer  of  the 
Church,  339. 

Home,  lack  of  religious  training  in, 
103. 


Home  Missions  Council,  310. 
Honorable    East    India    Company, 

attitude  of,  toward  missions,  213, 

272. 
Hort,  89. 

Horton,  Dr.  R.  P.,  cited,  29. 
Howard,  John,  240. 
Howerton,  James  R.,  "The  Church 

and  Social  Reforms"  by,  quoted, 

324. 
Hugo,  Victor,  quoted,  244. 
Hunter,  Sir  William,  quoted,  210. 

Immortality,  teaching  of  Church 
concerning,  188;  an  indispensable 
condition  for  development  of  hu- 
manity in  God,  256;  one  mission 
of  Church,  to  keep  alive  in  human 
hopes  the  revelation  of,  342;  a 
vivid  faith  in,  of  deepest  neces- 
sity to  passing  life  of  men,  343. 

Ingersoll,  Robert,  185. 

International  Critical  Commentary, 

93- 
International  Peace  Plan,  315. 
International      Socialist      Bureau, 

158. 
International  Theological  Library, 

93- 

Israel,  message  of  prophets  to,  274- 

277. 
Italy,  93. 

James,  William,  cited,  317. 

Japan,  awakening  of,  288. 

Johannine  writings,  biblical  criti- 
cism of  authorship  and  dates,  97. 

Judah,  message  of  prophets  to,  274- 
277. 

Judsons,  the,  240. 

Kant,  121. 

Kepler,  240. 

Kidd,  Benjamin,  194. 


INDEX 


359 


King,  Basil,  "The  Way  Home"  by, 
quoted,  152. 

Kingdom,  the,  198;  dedication  of 
wealth  to  upbuilding  of,  203,  295, 
300;  human  enlightenment  not 
yet  ready  for  full  development 
of,  237;  new  moral  education  in 
Church  the  foreheralding  of 
mightiest  revival  in  interests  of, 
268;  factors  in  upbuilding  of,  281 ; 
movement  for  reign  of  peace,  a 
movement  of,  316;  is  all-inclusive 
end  and  aim  of  Christ's  teaching, 
327;  Christ's  conception  of,  329; 
is  coming  to  its  own  in  Christian 
thought,  331;  supreme  agency  for 
bringing  of,  is  regenerated  and 
individual  lives,  332 ;  ideal  world, 
a  transitional  stage  to  that  which 
is  perfect  and  eternal,  343. 

Knowledge,  debt  of,  to  science, 
69ft. 

Labor,  attitude  of,  toward  Church, 
47,  150,  189,  203;  condition  of, 
without  Church,  49;  mutual  need 
of  Church  and  laboring  men,  50, 
204;  responsibility  of  wealth  to- 
ward, 138;  advantage  of  corpora- 
tions over,  I46ff. ;  outlook  for, 
148;  growing  discontent  of,  150; 
relation  of,  to  Socialism,  158; 
some  contributory  causes  to  prej- 
udice against  spirit  of  organized, 
301 ;  relation  between  capital  and, 
302ff.;  theory  wrong  that,  is  sole 
producer  of  values,  306. 

Leadership,  demand  for  educated, 
I25ff. 

Legislation,  influence  of  financial 
interests  on,  144. 

Lessing,  quoted,  9,  12. 

Libanius,  quoted,  105. 

Life,  human,  new  ideal  of  sacred- 


ness    of,    introduced    by    Chris- 
tianity, 247ff. 
Lincoln,     Abraham,     quoted,     23; 

emancipator  and  martyr,  240. 
Liquor  traffic,  international  crusade 

against,  321,  322. 
Livingstone,  240. 
Loofs,  Dr.  Friedrich,  "What  Is  the 

Truth  About  Jesus  Christ?"  by, 

quoted,  11. 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  quoted,  46, 

264. 
Luther,    demand    of,    for    religious 

education     of     childhood,     105- 

cited,  121,  240. 

Macaulay,  on  Lessing,  9. 

Macdonald,  Ramsey,  quoted,  172. 

Machinery,  introduction  of,  radi- 
cally changed  relation  of  capital 
to  labor,  145. 

Maeterlinck,  "Mary  Magdalene" 
by,  quoted,  43,  44. 

Mammon,  power  of,  270,  271. 

Man,  the  two  supreme  facts  of 
Christian  revelation  are  God  and, 
245 ;  highest  interpretation  of,  the 
Son  of  God,  247;  God's  purpose 
in,  25iff.;  is  greater  than  his 
achievements,  252;  most  sov- 
ereign achievements  of,  are  sim- 
ply for  service,  253;  the  cross, 
the  measure  of  God's  investment 
in  the  interests  of,  254,  338;  to 
be  brought  into  the  likeness  of 
Christ,  255;  immortality  to  fur- 
nish opportunity  for  fullest  de- 
velopment of,  256-258;  goal  of 
evolution,  man  perfected,  259; 
divine  view  of,  destined  to  take 
controlling  place  in  common 
thought,  260;  significance  of  doc- 
trine of  brotherhood  of,  267. 

Mathews,  Shailer,  quoted,  265. 


360 


INDEX 


McArthur,  Alexander,  M.  P.,  quot- 
ed, 210. 

Methodist  Men,  National  Conven- 
tion of,  211,  215. 

Meyer,  Henry  H.,  18,  109. 

Middle  Ages,  place  held  by  Church 
in,  85;  religious  education  during, 
105. 

Mills,  Samuel,  214. 

Milton,  240. 

Ministry,  arduous  duties,  and  in- 
adequate support  of,  in  rural 
communities,  34ff.;  average  sal- 
ary of,  compared  with  certain 
classes  of  laborers,  37;  intellectual 
demands  on,  120;  character  of,  of 
vital  importance  to  Church,  125; 
need  of  thorough  educational 
preparation  for,  1255.;  some  at- 
tributes of  efficient,  130;  restric- 
tions placed  upon  by  worshipers 
of  Mammon,  273,  274. 

Missionaries,  high  qualifications 
necessary  for,  221,222;  work  of 
requires  infinite  patience  and 
faith,  222;  real  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity exemplified  among,  310. 

Missions,  Sir  William  Hunter  on, 
210;  Alexander  McArthur  on, 
210;  Dr.  W.  F.  Oldham  on,  210, 
215,  312;  the  most  sublime  move- 
ment in  present-day  history,  211; 
movement  started  in  face  of  in- 
difference and  opposition,  213; 
Carl  Crow  on,  213,  217,  223,  224; 
phenomenal  growth  of,  in  recent 
years,  214,215;  Phillips  Brooks 
on,  216;  Mrs.  Isabella  Bird  Bishop 
on,  217;  message  of,  calls  for 
largest  consecration  of  gifts  and 
service,  218;  considered  as  a 
business  enterprise,  219;  coming 
victory  of,  220,  225;  efficient  ad- 
ministration of  home  boards,  221 ; 


magnificent  educational  work  of, 
223;  British  Blue  Book  of  1904 
on,  223;  medical  and  other 
achievements  of,  224;  Dr.  James 
S.  Dennis  on,  224;  Sir  Andrew 
H.  L.  Fraser  on,  224;  supreme 
importance  of  Christian  unity 
taught  by,  309;  significance  of, 
in  their  relation  to  progress  of 
Christ's  Kingdom,  312. 

Monica,  105. 

Monopolies,  capitalistic,  a  menace 
to  democratic  government,  141; 
opposed  to  progress  of  vital  Chris- 
tianity, 142;  individuals  compos- 
ing, ordinarily  selfish,  143.  See 
Capitalism. 

Morrisons,  the,  240. 

Mott,  Dr.  John  R.,  leadership  of, 
220. 

Moulton,  Professor  James  Hope, 
quoted,  80. 

Muir,  Rev.  William,  "Christianity 
and  Labor"  by,  quoted,  153. 

Nature,  scientific  knowledge  of,  a 
modern  achievement,  71. 

Neglected  Fields  Survey,  cited,  310. 

New  Testament,  results  of  biblical 
criticism  of,  97;  revelation  of  God 
in,  246. 

Newton,  169. 

New  York  City,  the  most  important 
mission  field  of  the  world,  206. 

Nicholson,  Dr.  Thomas,  quoted, 
100,  109,  in,  112,  118. 

Nightingale,  Florence,  240. 

Northwestern  University,  recruits 
from,  for  foreign  missionary  serv- 
ice, in. 

Oldham,  Dr.  W.  F.,  quoted,  210, 

215.  312- 
Old  Testament,  results  of  biblical 


INDEX 


361 


criticism  of,  96;  revelation  of 
God  in,  245. 
Orient,  linked  by  science  with  the 
west,  71;  awakening  of,  288; 
interests  of  Occident  and,  in- 
creasingly intermingled,  289. 

Paganism,  unable  to  satisfy  deeper 
spiritual  instincts,  196;  effect  of, 
upon  early  Christianity,  233; 
transformation  of,  by  Holy  Spirit, 

234- 

Palace  of  Peace  at  The  Hague,  313. 

Panama  Canal  belt,  transformed  by 
science,  75. 

Paul,  Saint,  incomplete  knowledge 
of  Christ,  8 ;  teaching  of,  concern- 
ing function  of  Holy  Spirit,  230; 
great  emphasis  laid  by,  upon  the 
"Church,"  328. 

Peabody,  George,  240. 

Peace,  international  movements  in 
interest  of,  313-316. 

Peake,  Professor  Arthur  S.,  quoted, 
80. 

Philanthropy,  some  general  features 
of  present-day,  292s. 

Philosophy,  of  future,  to  be  en- 
riched by  scientific  knowledge, 
75;  marked  reaction  in,  from  ma- 
terialism of  a  generation  ago, 
316;  influence  of  religion  upon, 

317- 
Pinchot,  Gifford,  quoted,  22;  cited, 

38. 

Plantz,  President,  results  of  labor 
inquiry  made  by,  48. 

Plato,  251. 

Politics,  control  of,  by  financial  in- 
terests, 144. 

Poor,  Christ,  the  friend  of,  43; 
attitude  of,  toward  Church,  44ft"., 

.  150,  203;  awakening  sense  of  soli- 
darity, 46;  interest  of,  in  social 


justice,  47;  attractive  program 
offered  by  Socialism  to,  161. 

Population,  compared  with  church 
membership  and  attendance,  26, 
27,  29. 

Press,  influence  of,  119;  venalized 
by  financial  interests,  144. 

Production,  factors  entering  into, 
305, 306. 

Prohibition,  status  of,  in  United 
States,  321. 

Prophets,  some  modern,  of  social 
Christianity,  269;  message  of, 
270;  mission  of  Hebrew,  a  de- 
mand for  social  justice,  274-276; 
similarity  of  conditions  confront- 
ing ancient  and  modern,  277; 
wealth  of  equipment  at  disposal 
of  modern,  277;  characteristics 
of  modern,  278,279;  some  dis- 
ciples from  the  schools  of  our 
modern,  296,  297. 

Protestantism,  neglect  in,  of  spirit- 
ual teaching  of  young,  103;  mis- 
sionary enterprise,  a  common 
enthusiasm  of,  214;  gifts  of,  to 
missions,  215,  219;  sentiment  to- 
ward federation  of,  for  missionary 
conquest,  220;  interest  of,  in 
human  welfare,  265;  finding  its 
true  self  in  spirit  of  federation, 
312. 

Prussia,  105. 

Ptolemaic  astronomy,  64. 

Racial    feelings,    necessity    for    a 

transformation  of,  290. 
Rail,  Dr.  Harris  Franklin,  quoted, 

118. 
Rauschenbusch,   Professor  Walter, 

quoted,  134,  156,  308. 
Reason,  the  intellectual  and  social 

disturber  of  the  ages,  57;  conflict 

of,  with  conservatism,  61. 


362 


INDEX 


Reformation,  relation  of,  to  biblical 
criticism,  86;  cited,  235. 

Reimarus,  14. 

Religion,  relation  of,  to  science,  72; 
separated  from  State,  101 ;  status 
of,  in  the  home,  103;  Socialism 
antagonistic  to,  174;  philosophy 
influenced  by,  317;  Christianity 
to  become  the  universal  and  final, 

318. 

Religious  education,  lack  of,  in 
American  schools,  104,  106;  in 
Middle  Ages,  105;  in  Germany, 
107,  108;  lack  of,  in  American 
State  universities,  109-112;  need 
of,  cannot  be  met  by  Sunday 
school,  113;  the  great  gravity  of 
the  situation,  114. 

Renaissance,  234;  present-day  re- 
vival of  educational  ideals,  a 
Christian,  282. 

Renan,  quoted,  13. 

Richmond,  James,  214. 

Roman  empire,  status  of  woman 
in,  191. 

Rome,  183,  196. 

Roosevelt,  37. 

Ryan,  Professor  John  Augustine, 
quoted,  156;  debate  with  Mr. 
Hill  quit  cited,  172;  quoted,  174. 

Sabatier,  quoted,  76. 

Salvation  Army,  323. 

Sanday,  Professor,  quoted,  93,  97. 

Savage,  Marion  Dutton,  quoted, 
264. 

Schools,  public,  contribution  of,  to 
national  life,  102;  marked  ad- 
vance in  secular,  but  neglect  of 
religious  training  in,  104;  August 
Hermann  Francke,  the  founder 
of,  105. 

Schweitzer,  Albert,  quoted,  7,  14, 
17- 


Science,  contributions  of,  to  biblical 
interpretation,  64;  relation  of,  to 
truth,  69;  achievements  of,  70,  71 ; 
relation  of,  to  religion,  72;  an 
ally  of  Christianity,  73;  service 
of,  for  world's  betterment,  74ff.; 
debt  of,  to  individual  toilers,  169; 
conquest  of  nature  by,  '252. 

Scotland,  93. 

Selfishness,  a  great  foe  of  social  and 
moral  progress,  138,  139;  as  evi- 
denced in  capitalistic  monopolies, 

I40-I43- 

Semler,  92. 

Seneca,  quoted,  190,  196. 

Service,  the  true  measure  of  great- 
ness, 240;  Christ,  our  ideal  in, 
241 ;  call  for,  heard  and  heeded  at 
seats  of  capital,  293;  opportunity 
for,  in  various  professions,  298; 
new  ideals  of,  making  resistless 
appeal  to  the  rich  and  strong  for, 
300. 

Shakespeare,    quoted,    244;    cited, 

253. 

Sidgwick,  Henry,  quoted,  63. 

Simm,  "What  Must  the  Church  Do 
to  Be  Saved?"  by,  cited,  38. 

Sin,  teaching  of  Church  concerning, 
187. 

Smith,  Robertson,  93. 

Smith,  Dr.  Samuel  George,  quoted, 
326. 

Socialism,  interests  of  poor  aligned 
with,  47;  Dr.  W.  M.  Clow  on, 
156;  Professor  Walter  Rauschen- 
busch  on,  156;  Professor  John 
Augustine  Ryan  on,  156;  organi- 
zation and  growth  of,  157;  Morris 
Hillquit  on,  158,  159,  171,  173; 
basic  philosophy  of,  1 59-161; 
program  of,  a  maze  of  imprac- 
ticabilities, i62ff.;  ideals  of,  ma- 
terialistic,   166,    172,    176;  offers 


INDEX 


363 


no  suitable  reward  for  achieve- 
ment, 168;  does  not  give  fair 
encouragement  to  thrift,  169; 
H.  G.  Wells  on,  170;  blind  to 
moral  and  spiritual  needs  of 
men,  172;  Ramsey  Macdonald 
on,  172;  Keir  Hardie  on,  172; 
dominating  minds  of,  overwhelm- 
ingly anti-Christian,  174;  disre- 
gards benefit  to  individual  of 
toil,  175;  not  a  substitute  for 
Christianity,  177. 

Soul,  teaching  of  Church  concern- 
ing, 188. 

Spahr,  Charles  B.,  200. 

Speer,  Dr.  Robert  E.,  quoted,  211. 

Strachan,  Dr.  James,  "New  Cyclo- 
pedia of  Religion  and  Ethics," 
quoted,  96. 

Straus,  12,  92. 

Strong,  Dr.  Josiah,  quoted,  24,  286; 
"Social  Progress,"  "New  Cyclo- 
pedia of  Reform,"  cited,  26. 

Students'  Volunteer  Movement, 
work  of,  219. 

Sunday  school,  enrollment  of,  112, 
323;  cannot  meet  the  larger  de- 
mands   for    religious    education, 

113- 

Superstition,  evolution  of,  59;  by 
many,  intermingled  with  reli- 
gious faith,  60. 

Taxation  of  large  fortunes,  160,  168. 
Taylor,  Dr.  Charles  B.f  33. 
Telemachus,  248. 
Temperance  reform,  growth  of,  321, 

322. 
Tennyson,  77;  quoted,  286. 
Theology,  of  future,  to  be  aided  by 

scientific  knowledge,  75;  need  of 

a  newly  formulated,  123. 
Thought,  evolution  of  superstitious, 

59;    conservatism    a    controlling 


force  governing  human,  61;  the 
need  of  original,  63;  imperative 
need  of  rational  rule  over,  67; 
effect  of  irrational  on  religion,  68 ; 
science  a  clarifier  of,  69;  the 
changing  order  in,  121;  the 
Church's  need  of  modern  scienti- 
fic, 122,  123;  new  movement  in 
Christian,  269. 

Timothy,  early  religious  training  of, 
104. 

Traditional  thinking,  power  of,  59; 
two  types  of,  63,  65. 

Uhlhorn,  Dr.  Gerhard,  quoted,  182. 

Universities,  State,  lack  of  provi- 
sion for  religious  training,  an 
indictment  against,  no;  small 
percentage  of  religious  workers 
from,  in. 

Volunteers  of  America,  323. 
Vulgate,  Latin,  84. 

Walling,  William  English,  quoted, 
174. 

Ward,  Mrs.  Humphry,  "Richard 
Meynell"  by,  cited,  153. 

Warschauer,  Dr.,  quoted,  286. 

Watt,  James,  65,  66. 

Wealth,  legitimacy  and  rights  of 
private,  135;  Christ's  teachings 
concerning,  135,  137;  consecra- 
tion of,  to  the  common  good, 
136,  292-294,  300;  possession  of, 
a  great  responsibility,  138,  193, 
201;  despotism  of  selfish  acquisi- 
tion and  use  of,  139;  national,  of 
America,  145,  162;  undue  in- 
fluence of,  in  Church,  153;  views 
of  Socialism  concerning,  160; 
amount  of,  per  capita,  162;  need 
of  private,  for  cultural  institu- 
tions,   167;    distribution    of,    in 


364 


INDEX 


United  States,  200;  rule  of  Mam- 
mon, 270,  271;  highest  satisfac- 
tion of,  in  call  for  moral  service, 
295;  man  of,  has  great  poten- 
tialities of  service,  297. 

Welfare,  of  individual,  never  so 
sought  and  studied  as  now,  238; 
rising  tide  of  interest  in,  invasive 
of  Protestant  Christianity,  265; 
present-day  interest  in,  seeks  to 
remove  causes  of  need,  266. 

Welhausen,  92. 

Wells,  H.  G.,  "The  Great  State" 
by,  quoted,  170. 

Wenner,  Dr.  George  U.,  "Religious 
Education  and  the  Public  School" 
by,  quoted,  105. 

Wesley,  John,  121,  266. 

Westcott,  89. 

Whedon,  Dr.,  quoted,  329. 

Whittier,  quoted,  261. 

Wilberforce,  240. 

Williams,  Aneurin,  "Co-Partner- 
ship and  Profit-Sharing"  by, 
quoted,  307. 

Wilson,  President,  "The  New  Free- 
dom" by,  quoted,  141,  143; 
"International   Peace    Plan"   of, 

315- 

Wilson,  Dr.  Warren  H.,  quoted,  22. 


Woman,  ennobling  influence  of 
Christianity  upon  status  of,  191, 
192. 

Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  So- 
ciety, medical  work  of,  224. 

Worcester,  Dr.  Elwood,  quoted,  56. 

Work  necessary  to  highest  attain- 
ments of  character,  175. 

Working  classes,  alienation  of,  from 
Churches,  151,  203. 

World,  landmarks  in  the  spiritual 
redemption  of,  234-236;  the 
"Golden  Rule"  the  final  solution 
of  misadjustments  of,  242;  su- 
preme problems  confronting 
Christianity  are  world-problems, 
288-291;  needs  capitalists  who 
are  stewards  for  Kingdom  of 
Christ,  295. 

World's  Missionary  Conference  at 
Edinburgh,  an  expression  of 
Christian  unity,  310. 

Wrede,  William,  14. 

Wurtemburg,  105,  107. 

Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
inestimable  service  rendered  by, 

323- 

Young  Women's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, 323. 


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